WiR 2: Go See the World :)
by the pixlexic sloth
Summary: When Sugar Rush becomes unplugged -possibly forever- Vanellope must convince Ralph to become a hero for her, her game, and the arcade again- come what may. But can Ralph muster up the courage to face his most dreaded fear- going into a scary place called the Internet? (This is written pre-WiR 2 movie, of course, and is my personal headcanon on what happens to Sugar Rush ;))
1. Author's Notes

**Quick Author's Notes :)**

~~~ **This is mostly just** **a little background information for the reason I made this fanfiction story. There may be a few spoilers in this for the people who don't want to know what the _Wreck-It Ralph 2_ movie premise is at all, so just a warning ;) ~~~**

 **The second _Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet_ trailer was released over 2 months ago (man time flies! lol) and is totally awesome, Yess and princess scenes included...but, come on, it was awesome within the _first few seconds,_ too lol. The fact that Ralph lets Vanellope fall asleep in his game and by his old stump... Totally adorable! I thought I was going to have a _heart attack_ due to cuteness overload- and now, of course, I'm totally obsessing over that one tiny part in the trailer lol :) :D It's also the inspiration for this story ;)**

 **And, in wake of the new trailer, there's more info on the premise, brand new concept artworks for the movie and even a sneak peek for the movie! :D (There is more info that has been released about the movie than what is here, but what I'm mentio** **ning is what info applies to my story ;))**

 **According to Wikipedia and other sources, there's a broken piece in the _Sugar Rush_ game (an internal steering wheel is broken, I think- how and why it's broken hasn't been stated yet), causing Ralph and Vanellope to go into the internet to find a replacement part on Ebay :) On top of that, there's a news article going around that highlights that Felix and Calhoun adopts the _Sugar Rush_ racers in the sequel (and newly released, 'loading' artwork gives credit to that being true as well)**.

 **Thus, this fanfiction piece is basically my theory/ 'story' on how the steering wheel got broken in the first place, why it's crucial that _Sugar Rush_ gets a replacement for it very soon, and why Vanellope ends up sleeping in Ralph's game in the first place. And, although it's not the focus of the story, Felix and Calhoun do play a big part in it, especially for the other _Sugar Rush_ racers :)**

 **I had no idea if this or a similar-ish idea will end up even being in the actual sequel or not (I'm probably over complicating my story and it's waaay off the mark of what the actual movie's ideas will be lol), but it was fun to imagine and write about what could happen between the two "siblings" Ralph and Vanellope, as well as what the story is leading to the Fix-Its adopting the _Sugar Rush_ kids :)** **This is _not_ considered headcanon or even canon, because I'm not exactly how Sugar Rush gets broken.**

 **Anyways, en** **joy my take on the 'story' behind how Vanellope got to sleep in Ralph's game before they go and explore the web- and the 'story' of how _Sugar Rush_ broke in the first place! :D Written pre-movie, of course ;P**


	2. Chapter 1: Harder...

**Chapter 1:** **Harder...**

Wreck-It Ralph raced through Game Central Station, his heart filled with panic.

That was taking it lightly, actually. It was really more like the huge giant of a man _stumbled. Galloped._ _Stampeded_.

Wreck-It Ralph flat-out _barreled_ through Game Central Station.

He nearly flatted many of the smaller characters that were unfortunate enough to get in his feet's path. Even some of the larger characters grunted and groaned as the wrecker plowed by them and pushed them out of the way.

Not that _any_ of those characters, great or small, would dare to confront Wreck-It Ralph for his near-forceful pushing and shoving.

Everyone in the near-packed Game Central Station had heard about or even seen from their games the 'Out of Order' sign on the _Sugar Rush_ game screen by then or heard that it had gotten unplugged quickly afterward. And they all knew, big or small, good guy or bad, that because of that news, Wreck-It Ralph was now on an unstoppable mission...

To get to the _Sugar Rush_ portal and make sure his best friend and leader of the racing game, Vanellope von Schweetz, was safe and ok. And to find out exactly what was going on or what was wrong in the first place.

And Ralph would indeed get there- no matter who or what else stood in his way.

It had become Ralph's mission the second after he, as well as Felix, saw it all happened on top of the NiceLanders Apartment building... after Mr.Litwak put the "Out of Order" sign on the screen of _Sugar Rush_...after the arcade owner then unplugged the popular race car game for some reason...

Something was wrong. _Very_ wrong.

At the end of the workday, Ralph had barely picked himself out of the mud and wiped his face off, ready to bolt in the Game Central Station to find out more information when his buddy Bowser had rushed into _Fix-It Felix Jr._ He quickly explained to both Ralph and Felix that hundreds of arcade characters were gathered before the _Sugar Rush_ portal already, adding much to Ralph's already dismay. The turtle-like dragon himself had heard what had transpired that day at the candy-themed game console but couldn't give his fellow bad guy Ralph many new details, other than that his guess was that the others in the arcade where just rubber-necking at the now unplugged game before going out to their usual Friday night outings and plans.

At the news of the station being packed, Felix had whistled in worry, then mentioning to Bowser that both he and Ralph were about to go see if _Sugar Rush_ was ok themselves...before quickly saying he was sure it _was_ , that it was probably just a big misunderstanding and that everything was perfectly fine, as he eyed up worriedly at Ralph.

But to Ralph, it didn't really matter.

The second he saw what had happened to _Sugar Rush_...or, to a greater extent, Vanellope... nothing else in his world mattered.

If anything happened to his Vanellope, his little sister, his annoying, impish, incredible best friend...

Ralph didn't know what he'd do.

Whether what had happened earlier with the console had greatly effected _Sugar Rush_ or Vanellope herself or not, something _was_ wrong. Very wrong. Ralph could feel it in his gut.

And he immediately needed to know what he or Felix could possibly do to help if there _was_ anything they could do.

Both Ralph and Felix quickly thanked Bowser for the little bit of information he had shared and rushed to the end of their game portal, right into the opening the station. They found that Bowser wasn't exaggerating in the slightest; the station _was_ indeed filled to the brim, even more so than on a usual Friday night. And everyone, good or bad guy, playable characters or NPCs, from the few dozens of arcade games were indeed gathered as close as they possibly could around the _Sugar Rush_ gate, standing still as they murmured among themselves.

The second Ralph stepped into the station, he groaned at the idea of having to weave his giant way through such a gridlock of traffic, but he didn't care. He'd get to _Sugar Rush_ \- he had to.

Curling his fingers up into determined fists, Ralph immediately rushed into the crowd without a second thought, leaving the poor, smaller Felix just behind to figure his own way out to get around in the crowded station.

"You go on ahead, brother!" the fixer called as loud as he could to Ralph to be heard above the voices of hundreds of talking characters at once. "I'm goin' to go find Tammy for help!'" The tiny man then began to cautiously make his way around as many characters as he could.

But Ralph had barely heard Felix or thought of going back and helping the fixer get through the huge crowd. The wrecker just continued to practically force his way haphazardly through the crowds. A handful of characters were shoved and justled along in the process, but others were smart enough to see that Ralph was coming and that clearly he was on a mission- and that they needed to get out of his way if at all possible.

After nearly accidentally ramming into a shaken Yoshie and a furious Nina Williams (who nearly purposed rammed him right back), though, the wrecker himself subconsciously knew he needed to calm down and get his way to _Sugar Rush_ more cautiously for the sake of others around him. It was practically standing room only in the station- and with his huge size and strength, Ralph knew he could accidentally yet seriously hurt someone smaller than him if he wasn't careful.

But the strong, driven need -the fear\- to get to the _Sugar Rush_ gate quickly ended up far outweighing that 'less important' need of others' safety in comparison.

 _Get to Sugar Rush_ , Ralph panicked mentally as he pushed and shoved that much harder, _I must get to Sugar Rush._.. _I must get to Vanellope_...

He was frozen in place right in the middle of the crowd as a sudden, horrible thought came to him, causing a whole new wave of panic to overtake him. Shaking, he quickly began to push himself forward yet again in as full speed as he could, this time even harder.

 _Oh, please let her have gotten out of the game before it got unplugged..._

After much more pushing and shoving and mental torment, Ralph was somehow able to weave through the crowd of onlookers without crushing anyone. He clumsily forced himself to a halt about twenty yards from the _Sugar Rush_ portal, nearly tripping over a pair of humanized lollipops from the sugary game in question.

Taking his eyes off the near-squished sucker twins, who shrieked loudly and darted out of the mammoth-like man's way, Ralph looked up and saw another whole new set of game characters. The crowd before him now consisted of variations of pinks and creams and oranges. Humanized candy and treats were everywhere in a group in front of the _Sugar Rush_ game portal, all talking loudly and worriedly as they darted about in near panic. Overhead of them, the normally lit up sign that had the scrolling title of the words _Sugar Rush_ was now eerily blank, yet another horribly definite clue that the game had indeed been unplugged.

Doing his best to take the sight all in, Ralph peered deeper into the middle of the _Sugar Rush_ crowd and could see a few of the actual go-kart racers as well, the only playable characters in the game of _Sugar Rush_. The poor children were running around and shaking, clearly upset by all the chaos around them.

Ralph quickly spotted Taffeta, who was trying to wipe away her panicked tears, but already causing mascara streaks on her cheeks...and then his eyes regrettably landed that one racer, Rancis (or as Ralph secretly called him, _Rancid_ ), who was trying to keep his peanut butter cup hat in place as he was justled around in the crowd of fellow game characters. Even a normally clueless Candlehead seemed to know what was going on better than Ralph did, and because of it, she was walking around nervously with her friends from their game.

It looked to Ralph from his taller vantage point that every single character from _Sugar Rush_ , playable or not, was now safely outside the unplugged game and into the station...

Except for...

 _Oh, sweet mother Hubbard,_ Ralph thought in pure distress as he desperately looked around in the crowd to spot Vanellope. _What if...if she didn't get out in time? Or she couldn't even get out of the game as it was being unplugged?!_...

"Ralph!" Felix suddenly called out of nowhere, somewhere close to the floor behind Ralph. "Have you heard anythin' else yet?"

Forcing his panicked thoughts away, Ralph shook his head hard and turned towards where he heard his colleague's voice coming from, to see no sight or trace of Felix anywhere in the sea of other familiar faces.

As he looked around at feet level trying to spot him, Ralph was startled as the fixer's head suddenly appeared on the top surface of the non- _Sugar Rush_ crowd. Then Felix' wife's, Sergeant Tamora Calhoun, head came into view as well, balancing her husband steadily on her broad shoulders as she made her way cautiously over to where Ralph stood.

As the tall woman approached, Ralph took a split moment to take in her appearance. The fierce woman was wearing a casual dark green tank top, a pair of baggy army pants to match and messy, unkempt bangs- her usual attire after arcade hours on a Friday evening. But as he studied her, Ralph could easily see the unusual worried lines on her face as both she and Felix carefully surfed through the crowd on non- _Sugar Rush_ characters.

It was clear to the wrecker that Felix had clearly filled his wife in on the mayhem going on with an unplugged _Sugar Rush_...and possibly Vanellope...

"No, I haven't heard anything yet!" Ralph finally yelled over the crowd to Felix and Calhoun as they stood as close as they could to him to hear. They watched in helplessness as the concerned giant kept frantically searching for someone...for any sign, they both knew, of his little best friend.

His eyes wide and desperate, Ralph felt his previous worrying fears becoming more and more like a reality. Looking at both Calhoun and Felix in the eye, the wrecker finally choked out painfully: "I-I haven't even seen Vanellope y-"

"Wait- look!" Calhoun suddenly exclaimed, pointing to a small, green, and round piece of humanoid candy with jelly bean legs and hands in the _Sugar Rush_ crowd. "It's that little sauerkraut Sour Bill! Surely _he_ knows something about what's in the Cy-Bug is going on- and even where Vanellope is!"

Ralph, in a small piece of hope growing inside him, turned to see the sour assistant of _Sugar Rus_ _h_ himself and saw that the candy was indeed in the game's crowd, his own huge eyes clearly filled with worry.

"Yo, Cough Drop!" the wrecker desperately cupped his mouth with his large hands and called loudly out into the crowd before him. "Over here!" he added as he and Felix waved their arms side to side in order to get the candy's attention.

Turning at hearing his 'name' from a familiar voice, the candy squinting for a moment in their direction before finally realizing just who it was calling him and the friends around him. His eyes growing to fill more than half his face, Sour Bill quickly waddled through the crowd and over to where Ralph and the Fix-Its stood waiting, panting as he sped to a stop before them.

"Sir Sour B- _iilll_ ," Felix called out unevenly as he flailed his arms about, trying to steady himself after his wife was repeated and accidentally bumped as by the crowd drawing closer in. "Ralph and I- _I-_ saw - _woah-_ what happened earlier with _Sugar Rush_. Is everythin- _eeee_ -in' ok?"

The candy hesitated as he continued to try and catch his breath, looking up at the three friends before finally giving his answer- although Ralph could already feel the dread Sour Bill was experiencing.

"No," the candy answered bluntly, his face looking even more tired and stressed than ever before. "Mr.Litwak...placed an 'Out of Order' sign... on our screen and then... then he _unplugged_ us for the rest of the night!"

At the candy man's words, shock, panic, and a collective gasp was shared between the three adults- especially Ralph.

"What?!" the wrecker choked out in disbelief down at the sour candy, his panic inside him raising. " _Why_?! Did that stupid kid break _Sugar Rush_ earlier when he kicked it, or something?! And-And w-where is Van-"

A loud microphone echo screech was heard suddenly, causing everyone in the station, _Sugar Rush_ characters and otherwise, to stop mid-sentence and instinctively cover their ears in pain as it shrieked loudly. Calhoun herself almost dropped Felix from her shoulders as she too covered her own ears, quietly allowing a few curse words to escape her lips in annoyance.

Once the ear-splitting whining of the microphone was over, everyone uncovered their ears and was able to finally turn to look in the direction the microphone feedback was coming from, all now surprisingly quiet and attentive.

As Ralph himself looked, he was washed over with relief to see Vanellope von Schweetz standing on a shack of oreo guards piled on top of each other, standing next to an uncomfortable looking Surge Protector. The little girl stood up as straight as she could, now taller and able to see over the crowd of _Sugar Rush_ -ians and the others in the larger crowd.

At the sight of her, Ralph let a deep breath go that he didn't even know he was shakily holding in.

 _Vanellope's ok..._ he was able to tell himself now. _Sh_ _e was able to past through the exit barriers of the game as it got unplugged..._

At the sight of his leader on the oreo guards, Sour Bill quickly abandoned his chat with the president's friends and took off as fast as his jelly bean legs would take him. He quickly weaved through the crowd of fellow _Sugar Rush_ characters and stumbled to stand obediently by the _Sugar Rush_ leader's other side- and by the looks of it, the young girl could use as much support as she could.

The poor president's -the poor _child's-_ face was clearly stressed, uncharacteristically frazzled and nervous as she held the microphone closer to her mouth once again. She paused for a moment to take in the citizens of her game right before her, and then the large crowd of non- _Sugar Rush_ characters. And, although they could see _her_ , Vanellope clearly and apparently was still unable to see Ralph and the Fix-Its in the forefront of the crowd of various gaming characters. She narrowed her eyes as they surfed and sifted through the huge, thick crowd of various game characters, no doubt looking for her three loyal and closet friends.

After finally giving up in searching for them, Vanellope exchanged a quick and silent nod with Surge Protector, cleared her throat, and addressed everyone eagerly waiting for her to speak.

"H-hello fellow citizens of _Sugar Rush_ \- and all the others who are gathered here at the moment!" She began, her voice trying to sound filled with authority as she spoke to every one of the now quiet characters. "As some, if not _most_ of you all in the non- _Sugar Rush_ crowd have heard by now, there was a player-involved incident this morning that has, um, 'caused' our game to be unplugged for the-"

"Wait...'A player-involved incident?' " someone gathered in the non- _Sugar Rush_ crowd inquired, obviously a character from a game that wasn't in sight of the _Sugar Rush_ gaming cabinet. "What happened with a player?"

Vanellope sighed loudly and unrestrainedly rolled her eyes dramatically upwards, annoyed by the interruption... causing Ralph to crack a small smile despite his still present worry.

She could act all "president-y" all day long, but Vanellope von Schweets could never fully hide her innate, childish sass and attitude.

"Well, if you guys _must_ know," the child mumbled into the mic, a slight echo of it heard as it bounced off the walls of the station. "A player was angry that a certain, anonymous racer they were using as their avatar wasn't coming in first place as she always does and-"

"Oh, come on, President Vanellope!" Gloyd Orangeboar called out loudly in joking, playful annoyance. "You don't _always_ win! _I_ won today! And so did Candlehead!"

At male _Sugar Rush_ racer's words, Ralph paused and thought them over- and realized how weird they were to him to hear.

 _Vanellope's right, though- she does usually win if she's on the roster, _he thought over, visualizing being up on the rooftop and watching the _Sugar Rush_ races happen. _And if she doesn't win, Taffyta does. They both are the players' favorite avatars of the game, anyways...why didn't either of them win?_

On on the oreo guards, Vanellope narrowed her eyes at her fellow racer down below her, her competitive, childish instincts clearly evident- although it too was all in fun.

"Ok, _fine_ ," she finally caved. "A player was angry that a certain, anonymous racer they were using as their avatar didn't come in first place as she _usually_ does," she rushed out, "...and kicked the side of the console like the poor loser moron he was."

Although taken aback at the news, a handful of non- _Sugar Rush_ characters chuckled, able to clearly envision the scene- especially if their games themselves had experienced such an incident. Since such a player-gaming cabinet incident in the arcade wasn't all too uncommon, it still proved to crack up a few of the longtime patron characters to hear of yet another angry outburst from a player.

Most 'incidents' were just players hitting or kicking the console out of frustration or anger about their chosen, often favorite characters not winning the overall game- more of a comical sight if anything else. The characters in the affected game would barely even feel such an impact from a player on their game, especially if it was from a weaker child player. In fact, no real lasting damage was ever really done to the game during such player-involved moments, other than an occasional light dent in the gaming cabinet or a deeply bruised foot or hand on the player's part.

Remembering being an eye-witness to the scene of kicking for _Sugar Rush,_ Felix himself couldn't help but hold back a small laugh, eyeing down at his wife to see she herself was sporting a lopsided grin of amusement.

But Ralph didn't and couldn't even crack a light-hearted smile.

Sure, _Fix-It Felix Jr._ had had many such player-on-game contact, (along with a few choice words about 'that nasty wrecking guy'), and Ralph, along with Felix and the NiceLanders, then usually just laughed off the memorable sights as well while they were off-screen...

But this time... such an incident that affected _Sugar Rush_ wasn't very funny to Ralph. It was more of very odd, strange, and...worrying to him than comical.

Because now... _Sugar Rush_ was, not only 'out of order', but was also _unplugged_ for the night because of such a player-game incident.

Ralph, in all his now collectively 36 and counting years of gameplay, had _never_ heard of a game having to be unplugged because of such an outburst from a player, even from a strong adult player.

 _Why did it happen to Sugar Rush?_ Ralph wondered...

Both he and Felix had witnessed the whole, quick happening incident involving _Sugar Rush_ from their game up on the roof before Ralph was thrown off - and it made no sense why Litwak would unplug _Sugar Rush_ over such a relatively small confrontation...

A mere (admittedly chubby) child, a 10-year-old or younger, had been playing _Sugar Rush_ with Vanellope as his chosen avatar and was quickly losing the race to Taffyta. Then, in anger, the boy kicked the side of the console.

That was all that had happened as far as Felix and Ralph could see before they both were forced to focus back on their own game again as Ralph was thrown off the roof. The kick really appeared to be no big deal.

The child was not much bigger the scrawny preteen arcade patron 'Moppet Girl'- definitely not someone who could ever damage a game cabinet, even with the strongest of kicking. And, as Ralph ended up seeing later on that day up on the roof, the boy's kicking hadn't even left so much as a _scrap_ e on the _Sugar Rush_ cabinet.

 _There's no way that incident earlier was significant enough to cause the whole game to be unplugged, even for a few hours,_ Ralph thought as he eyed Vanellope on the oreo guards.

His wondering was quickly shaken away when he caught Vanellope starting to cringe slightly as the others in the non- _Sugar Rush_ crowd still chuckled at the news...but her tensing up was yet just another unusual sight to the wrecker.

He watched mystified as Vanellope acted as if she was scared of something as she gripped the mic she was holding that much harder, gulping as she did. The child's eyes suddenly flashed wide before she quickly screwed up her face and shook her head quite forcefully. It was as if she was shaking off something rising over her as she remained incredibly tense...

Something was wrong. Ralph could feel it. And that something involved Vanellope.

His mind thought back to how after the kicking incident happened, he had barely seen Mr.Litwak examine _Sugar Rush_ , and not obviously seeing anything wrong with it, walked away and left it to be played with the other players. But after just a few players played, Mr.Litwak ended up coming back to the assaulted game... and placed an "Out of Order' sign on the screen on _Sugar Rush_ quickly after...

And then that maintenance guy, whatever his name was, came and examine the game, too. And now...

 _Sugar Rush_ was even unplugged for the rest of the night for some very odd reason.

 _There must be something_ _deeply wrong_ , Ralph gulped down. _Something in inside the game..._ _something I couldn't see earlier up on the roof..._

But just _what_ was wrong inside _Sugar Rush?_...Or possibly, even...inside Vanellope?

Before Ralph could express his thoughts and worries out loud, though, Calhoun beat him to it as the chucklers quieted down in their lighthearted laughs.

"But..how was some bozo's sour attitude and foot combination enough to put you guys 'out of order' for the rest of the day?" Calhoun asked loudly with slightly narrowed, unconvinced eyes. "And unplugged for the evening?"

At the woman's words, Vanellope's own eyes grew wide once again as she craned her neck to see Calhoun, with Felix on her shoulders, standing in the crowd. Once her eyes landed on them, the child felt relief washing over her.

So her dear friends _were_ there supporting her...now if only Vanellope could find Ralph...

The girl's face, however, didn't stay relieved for long as she quickly twisted it up in anger. Although she was happy to see the woman and the fixer there in the crowd, Vanellope wasn't so happy about Calhoun's thought-provoking question.

Vanellope eyed across at Calhoun with irritated, squinted eyes for some reason at the question asked...before her eyes danced over to see that Ralph wasn't standing too far from where Calhoun stood.

She now knew he was there for her, too, undoubtingly hearing and possibly even _seeing_ what had happened to her game... and her Stink Brain was now there for her, loyally giving her unspoken support as she did her best to sort through this mess.

And, with his strong help, Ralph could help her _fix_ it all, too.

A small, relieved sigh escape Vanellope's mouth, untraced by the microphone- but not unseen by Ralph.

Making eye contact with her across the large crowds, the wrecker forced himself to smile encouraging and to give a gentle, reassuring wave. Although still deeply worried and confused, he was relieved at the sight of her smiling at him despite all the chaos.

 _She's ok.._.he thought, his heartbeat finally calming down- slightly. _She's got to be ok..._

Eyeing him in silent appreciation, Vanellope closed her eyes for a brief moment in time before finally answering Calhoun calmly, the crowds completely quiet once more in want of hearing the child's answer.

"Weelll...," she began, not sure of herself as she tried to casually roll her huge eyes upwards, then over at Surge- who simply nodded at her to continue. "Uh...apparently _Sugar Rush'_ s game cabinet isn't as thick or strong as some of the others' here in the arcade are. So...the kid's kicking ended up causing of a whole _slew_ of problems for _Sugar Rush_. Although it didn't actually crash through the cabinet, his foot did cause some, um, mostly minor damage to some of the inside parts," she stammered out.

Ralph felt his eyes widen in worry. So the kicking _did_ affect the inside of the game...

"What kind of damage does the game have?" Felix rang out, placing his hand on his hammer out of mere subconscious habit.

Although she could tell Felix wanted to help and appreciated it, there was still a clear moment of unhidden hesitation before Vanellope explained some of the problems plaguing her game.

"Well...instead of the winner's trophy being gold and shiny, it was all pink and glittery now- princess-y and junk. Total _yuck_!" Vanellope screwed up her face in disgust, earning a few quick, lighthearted laughs from both crowds. "The scoreboard, too, was all jumbled up with the character names and scoring- it was all kinda out of whack," she added, trying to wave it off.

"It was more of a noticeable nuisance to the players, really. And it was, uh, all _mostly_ stuff some maintenance work from the maintenance guy for the arcade could fix fairly easy, and.. _did_ earlier," she said, adding that last part for Felix to hear... although Ralph was the one who gained more comfort from it.

At her words, a heavy sigh escaped Ralph's lips as he ran his hand through his hair, now in settled ease. The first sincerely relieved smile since seeing the mess happen surfaced on his face, a look of peace starting to fill his eyes now.

So his gut was wrong. Everything was ok...kind of.

His best friend was safe, her game was ok, too, for the most part, it sounded like...although-

"Wait, wait...," Calhoun butted in, a look of confusion on her face. "If it was just 'mere maintenance work' to fix most the problems in _Sugar Rush_ , and _it was fixed,_ then why did Mr.Litwak have to _unplug_ the game the rest of the day, and even on into tomorrow?" she pointed out. " 'Mere maintenance work' doesn't usually require a game to get unplugged for a long period of time- let alone after it is fixed."

A few characters around her pondered over her words and nodded slowly in agreement, eyeing Vanellope curiously.

"Uh...well," Vanellope mumbled out, then looking at Surge Protector for some sort of answer as she rubbed her neck nervously. "There...um..."

"Could that mean there's possibly...a _bigger issue..._ going on with the game..?" Calhoun finally questioned, raising an eyebrow and placing her hands on her hips in accusation...and unhidden full-blown worry.

The others in the non- _Sugar Rush_ crowd side-eyed her, all of them somehow collectively thinking of the exact same thing as they each then turned to eye each other...worry beginning to spread across their own faces.

Had the player child's mere kicking eariler accidentally exposed a bigger problem going on in the _Sugar Rush_ gaming cabinet...something so huge it caused Litwak to feel the need to unplug the game...something, possibly, that could even affect _everyone's else_ games as well?...

A few moments passed, the crowd of various characters eyeing each in growing worry. Vanellope, Sour Bill and Surge Protector, and all the other _Sugar Rush_ characters before them, meanwhile, immediately began whispering to each at the worrying question posed to them, all of their already programmed-to-be huge eyes becoming even wider in panic.

Pure uncertainty on his face, Sour Bill quickly stood on the tips of his jelly bean feet and whispered something nervously to Vanellope up on oreo guards as she bent down, at the exact time Surge Protector turned and did the same, seeking to speak to the child as well. The two were too far away for anyone -Ralph especially- to hear anything being whispered to Vanellope, but it was clear whatever was said by the electronic man and green ball was unappreciated by and very overwhelming to the child leader. After another quick twisting up of her face and a hard head shake, Vanellope hushed them both roughly as she angrily shut them both down.

As their leader shushed Surge and Sour Bill, the other _Sugar Rush_ characters quickly became silent, _too_ silent in their place in the crowd as they eyed each other were pursed lips, then up at their fearless leader Vanellope. Taffyta became the only _Sugar Rush_ citizen making any audible noise heard, starting to fan her eyes and sniffle loudly and repeatedly to keep even more tears from falling again.

The whispering, the hushing, the clear, enhance worry the _Sugar Rush_ characters and Surge had at Calhoun's simple, unanswered, _undebated_ observation...

There was something that wasn't being openly said. All the characters in the _Sugar Rush_ crowd were acting too weird, too secretive about something. Even Surge Protector seemed ramped up and nervous over something.

In his own enhanced panic, Ralph quickly was beginning to realize that his gut feeling had been right the second he saw that kid kick the candy game's cabinet.

Something _was_ wrong. Very wrong. With _Sugar Rush,_ with Vanellope...and since Surge was involved, possibly the _whole arcade_ somehow now...

From her place on the stacked oreo guards, Vanellope narrowed her eyes at Sour Bill one last time to further silent him before turning back to Surge. Her eyes were determined, forced not to become fearful, but no matter how much she tried to mask it, the worry was still clearly there.

"Yes..., er, there _may_ be a bigger issue going on in _Sugar Rush_...," she finally admitted out into the silent crowds and into the mic as she solely stared at Calhoun. "And it _may_ need a little bit more than mere maintenance work to fix it. And sure, we'll all be homeless until it does get, er, "fixed" or until we get plugged back in..." the girl trailed off, her face faulting slightly in worry.

But she then forced her face into a brave smile, clenching the mic a little harder. "BUT that doesn't mean that the other, er, _problem_ _s_ can't be 'fixed' - and soon! I have a plan, a great plan- so, there's nothing to worry about- really!"

A sudden mock smirk appeared on her lips as she joked in microphone: "I bet we'll be _back on track_ as soon as possible. Pun intended, hehe."

After the crowd that consisted of many various characters began to eye each and whisper quietly, still unsure by her words, Surge clear this throat authoritatively and gently took the microphone from Vanellope.

"But until then, if anyone would like or would be able to volunteer to supply ample shelter arrangements in their game for the _Sugar Rush_ characters," he spoke calmly, "please let me know the characters who you wish to help. Such housing support for these characters is much appreciated at this time."

All in both crowds, some in the random, various characters crowd from different games, huge and small, along with the assorted humanized candy, cookies, treats and the children racers from the _Sugar Rush_ crowd, eyed each other, either curiously, nervously, or with uncertainty.

But with Vanellope's fake, calm smile staying plastered on her face, most in the non- _Sugar Rush_ crowd quickly looked at each other with a calm shrug, deciding that the chibi-like leader's simple, strange answer was good enough and decided to not press it any further.

Ralph and the Fix-Its watched as the others around them slowly began to wander away. As they did, Calhoun gently lifted Felix off her shoulders and set him on the ground as they all continued to eye Vanellope and the other _Sugar Rush_ citizens nervously.

 _Something's not right,_ Ralph thought in pure worry. _What are they hiding that can't be openly said?_

And as Vanellope stood there shaking slightly, seeming to be...forcing herself _not_ to glitch, Ralph quickly took on a whole new mission.

To figure how just what his best friend was hiding about what had happened earlier in her game.

 _-0-0-0-0-0-_ _0-_

After her speech's conclusion (one that she knew was so weak it was almost painful), Vanellope watched as all of the non-playable treats and candies from her game all ran to stand by Surge Protector, who was slowly rallying non- _Sugar Rush_ game characters to take in the tiny characters in small groups.

Gulping, Vanellope turned to her other citizens, her own fellow racers, and friends- all still temporarily homeless and standing before her... And she swallowed an even bigger gulp at the hard-hitting reality that this was, albeit unintentionally, all her fault.

The trophy, the scoreboard...the steering wheel's disappearance...the fact that they were all unplugged, stranded and gameless for the night...possibly even _forever_ if she couldn't control it...

It had all been kind of her fault, the petite president felt; she was partially to blame for the disastrous situation she and her fellow game characters were now finding themselves in...

And all because of her once again out-of-control glitching.

 _But none of that matters now,_ Vanellope quickly reminded herself, shaking her head from the depressing thoughts. _What has happened has happened. There was no going back or changing it all now._

All the little girl of a leader could do now was try to fix the mess, be strong for her friends- and give them a reason to trust and hope in her again...

Even if she had to reconvince _herself_ of all that as well.

Seeing there now no need to be taller, Vanellope hoped off her oreo guards, stood calmly in front of her fellow racers and tried her best to console them.

"Everything is going to be ok, guys! I've got it all under control, I promise!" she told her racing subjects softly, her voice uncharacteristically -almost scarifyingly- calm and steady. "Your royal president has got it all covered- I've got a plan, so there's no need to panic or worry."

"B-But...how can you be sure, President Vanellope?" Gloyd asked, twiddling his thumbs as he approached her closer before he resorted to pushing his orange pumpkin hat down harder onto his head. "This is all really out of your hands now."

The other racers gathered around closer and approached her as well, looking at her with apprehension as she bit her lip nervously. She didn't like the worry in her friends' eyes; it was making her doubt herself and her abilities to be president even more.

"Yeah...you can't fix that we're unplugged, or all the unfixed problems _Sugar Rush_ has now," Snowanna agreed slowly as she looked around her unsettledly. "Especially not the fact that Steve thinks...well, that-"

" _Shush_!" Sour Bill hissed at her as he waddled up closer beside Vanellope. He narrowed his dark, serious eyes at the rainbow-haired child. "No one outside of us can know about any of...er, _those_ problems! At least not until Mr.Litwak, the maintenance man Steve, or Madam Vanellope herself can find a better solution for them!"

"Oh, _can it_ , Sour Bill!" Gloyd hissed at him, rolling his eyes down at the vice-president of sorts of his game. "It's gonna come out eventually, and when it does, all the others in the arcade will think that _Sugar Rush_ has a-"

" _Shush_!" Sour Bill insisted, looking around him frantically. "Gloyd, _please_ keep it down! We must keep that information classified-" he stopped when the children racers around him stared back at him blankly, "er, between us - _only_ us- for right now. If word gets out-"

" 'Sheer panic will overtake the arcade,' yeah, yeah," Jubileena finished his sentence as she droned, rolling her eyes as she placed her hands on her hips. "We _know_ that already! You and The Electric Blue Guy over there have told us that only a million times by now!" She tossed her head towards where Surge was speaking with Pac-Man and Mrs.Pac-Man, many of the humanoid candies by their sides.

"This is bad," Taffyta gasped out, abruptly fanning her eyes again. "Even if word doesn't get out and spread throughout the whole arcade, it doesn't matter- _Sugar Rush_ is getting shut down, I just know it!" Her narrowed her eyes sharply suddenly as she balled up her hands in anger. "All because of that- my...stupid _steering wheel!"_

At her words, almost every other _Sugar Rush_ racer was talking at once, voicing an opinion, a fear, or an annoyance.

Gloyd growled out that Taffyta's whining "wasn't helping anything, other than the headache" he was having, while Candlehead cried even harder at Tafftya's expressed fear, twisting her green pigtails over and over. Minty attempted to shush Taffyta and hissed to her not bring up "the steering wheel problem" right now so that they wouldn't make their president feel bad... although the Taffyta's words already succeeded in renewing Vanellope's guilt about the whole situation.

Jubileena, meanwhile, argued that it was really the player's fault for causing the steering wheel's disappearance, not Vanellope's, while Swizzle gulped out that it didn't really matter _whose_ fault it was and that Taffyta was definitely right- _Sugar Rush_ was getting shut down forever.

All the voices -all the openly worried, scared voices- that were talking all at once were starting to overwhelm Vanellope, make her head spin, and swallow her completely in guilt...when there was a loud whistle heard not too far behind where the _Sugar Rush_ racers stood.

Every racer talking, pacing, or worrying paused and turned to look behind them, parting their group in half. As Vanellope craned her neck around her friends to see who the whistle belonged to, she saw Rancis Fluggerbutter was standing not too far from behind the group.

The blond boy allowed his whistle-posed fingers in his mouth to drop to his side as his blue eyes pierced his fellow racers deeply, shaming them for their negative and panicky comments.

"Come on, guys!" Rancis said softly to the others as he walked forward to stand in the middle of the group. "Now is _not_ the time to panic!"

Pulling them away from his friends, Rancis' eyes then quickly met Vanellope's and after giving her a quick nod, the two shared a small, secret smile. Their secret exchange of smiles quickly caused the president to feel her cheeks start to heat up and before she could force it down, the brightness in her face turned into an all-out honeyglowing.

"Vanellope's right," Rancis continued, blushing a little himself. "Everything is going to be ok!" Holding his signature peanut butter cup hat in place on his head, the male racer then pushed his way through his friends to stand supportively right beside Vanellope.

At realizing her deep-seated blush, Vanellope felt herself tuck her neck into her shoulders as the others looked at her, her blushing getting even worse as she in slight shyness tucked a few loose strands of her bangs in behind one of her ears.

Smiling appreciatively at Rancis, Vanellope quickly found herself thinking briefly over these past 6 years since _Sugar Rush_ had been reset...and how she could always count on Rancis to be the level-headed, supportive racer of the group.

He'd support her since she got her title of being the president back, and always agreed with whatever plan she concocted, helping her in any way he could. But unlike some of the other racers (ones Vanellope at times felt like were just merely sucking up to her), Rancis was a racer Vanellope could actually have _fun_ with. They'd laugh and race together after the last race for the day was done, enjoying being in each other's company before Vanellope would dash off to find Ralph somewhere in the station.

Because of his sincere kindness and friendship with her, Vanellope couldn't help but feel a weird, special connection with Rancis... and even now she had to admit that both of them had become close friends (" _just friends_ ", though, as Vanellope often had to insist to the teasing other _Sugar Rush_ racers- and to the more panicky, protective Ralph).

"Even if the worse of the worse _does_ happen," Rancis suddenly added, shaking Vanellope's mind from her memories the boy as gestured towards her, "it'll all be ok! The president of _Sugar Rush_ here does have everything under control!"

Whether it was on cue, coincidently, or just ill-timing, Vanellope gulped when she felt it rising up and about to overtake her... and no amount of twisting up her face or head shaking was going to keep it down this time.

Unable to hold it back or attempt to control it any longer, Vanellope's glitch, once so controlled and in check, completely overtook her and caused a sharp jerk in her physical appearance- as it had done several times already that day.

The others gasped as the little girl before them -their now beloved leader- tried with all her might to control the involuntary glitching the best she could, force it to be kept in check as she had been able to for the past 6 years. But the more she tried to control it, the worse it became, causing most of her body to be quickly replaced by pixelated zeros and ones. For a split, almost agonizing second in time, the glitching leader stood almost completely scattered in appearance, almost unrecognizable- before her body returned normal again all at once and the unsettling glitch subsided, being over as fast as it had started.

The second the terrifying tremor ended, Vanellope quickly began panting, placing her hand over her fast beating heart. She gulped, her mouth completely dry as her eyes darted around, trying to mentally ground herself as she often did in the past after a strong, uncontrollable glitch. Remember where she was, the girl's eyes danced over to her friends.

"Ummm," she blushed out as the other racers continued to worriedly stare at her with slack-jaw mouths. "Right, I've got it all under contr-"

"I thought you said you weren't glitching as bad as you had been earlier!" Taffyta interrupted, her eyes bugging out at her leader.

Vanellope glared at her for a moment before massaging her aching forehead and the bridge between her nose. "Oh, come on, Taff," she rolled her eyes dismissively at the other girl's gawking in horror. "That glitch wasn't _that_ bad!"

 _Yeah, right, Vanny,_ Vanellope's mind couldn't help but condemned itself secretly, however. _That was one of the worst glitches you'd ever had, period._

"But you aren't able to control that glitch like you have in years past!" Taffyta resorted, her eyes still wide with panic. "You said you had gained full control over your glitch again!"

"' _Almost_ '," Vanelllope defensively corrected her with narrowed eyes. "I used the word ' _almost_ ' gained full control over my glitch again, Drama Queen. I'm just a little stressed, which makes my glitching a little worse and has made it a little more uncontrollable than usual, ok?" She attempted to offer some reasoning. "After all that has happened, yeah, it's been a little harder to control them...but it's no big deal, really-"

"BUT IT _IS _A 'BIG DEAL', VANELLOPE!" Taffyta suddenly screamed out in anger causing everyone close by to jump in being startled. She narrowed her eyes at passing-by characters from other games beginning to stare. "Because of your out-of-control glitching," she hissed more quietly when she turned back towards her leader, "you and I can't race anymore and my kart doesn't even have a steering wheel now and-and... our very _game_ could get shut down! Forever!"

At her harsh but truthful words, Rancis narrowed his eyes at Taffyta as he stood by Vanellope's side.

"Tafftya, we can't fix any of what has happened," he growled at her. "And blaming Vanellope won't fix her glitching, either. Only _she_ can control, not you. We _all_ were startled by that boy's kicking, but Vanellope really was-" he found himself trailing off upon seeing his words were falling on deaf ears...and were meeting a dead end.

Taffyta wasn't listening anymore, and neither were most of the other racers. Because although she tried to hide it, they all knew was now clear: Vanellope wasn't as close to gaining control over her glitch as she had told them she was. Not by a long-shot, and now like never before did their very game depend on how well she could control it- something even Rancis couldn't deny.

Beginning to pace the floor in front of the group of chibi-like characters, Taffyta murmured under her breath in pure panic. The other characters, even Sour Bill himself, continued to look on at Vanellope with uncertainty, all of them softly talking in whisper among themselves...before another loud whistle was heard again.

" _Guys_!" Rancis cried out again, glaring forcefully at the others around him. "Listen to me! Vanellope has gained control over her glitch before," he pointed out, "and she can do it again, in no time flat I bet! Like she said, she's a little stressed- like we _all_ are right now. It just takes time..."

"But how _much_ time?" Candlehead whined, melting forward with her shoulders. "We don't have much time before Mr.Litwak installs the-the 'thingy' because he thinks _Sugar Rush_ has a-!"

" _Candlehead_!" Minty growled at her, throwing one of her hands over the other girl's mouth... before the single most terrifying word known the arcade world could accidentally slip out and spread throughout the whole arcade.

Although thankful the word wasn't actually said, Sour Bill sighed and rubbed his jelly bean hand down the side of his face in annoyance and uneasiness. If he had to tell these kids _one more time_ not to mention the bigger issues facing _Sugar Rush_ now...well, the bigger issues facing the whole _arcade_ itself now, really...

"No, Candlehead is right!" Taffyta angerly joined in. "If Vanellope can't control her glitch again and we can't get a new steering wheel for my kart soon, what are we going to do?"

Before another wave of worried, panicked voices could agree with her, Rancis quickly interjected.

"Vanellope will control her glitch again," he told them with confidence. "And we will get a replacement steering wheel for your kart, Taffyta... somehow," he told the group slowly, although it was clear that he himself wasn't so sure of his last words as he rubbed the back of his neck.

At the mention of the need of a plan to get a replacement steering wheel, however, Vanellope's face suddenly brightened considerably, her face wide with a bold smirk that she had been honestly faking since the whole incident happened- only this time, it was a real smirk.

"I told you- I've _already_ got a plan for that, guys," she told her citizens semi-confidently, with a small eye roll and chuckle. "And I'll follow through with it soon...I've just got to convince, well, a certain _wrecker_ to go with it and help."

As she spoke, Vanellope chuckled slightly at Rancis' face as it couldn't help but twist up, the boy thinking of _very_ unpleasant memories that involved said wrecker. But after he fully processed what her words meant, the blond boy turned and smiled brightly back at his leader... making Vanellope's whole heart skip a beat again for a reason only known to her.

"See?" Rancis breathed a sigh of relief as he turned back to the others, a look of renewed confidence on his face. "I _told_ you our fearless leader would take care of us! We've just got to trust and believe that everything will be ok..."

As he turned back to look deeply into Vanellope's eyes once again, Rancis added softly: "And trust and believe in Vanellope herself."

His eyes still so soft and kind, Rancis then gingerly and yet shyly reached out and took Vanellope's tiny hand in his, his cheeks red as Jubileena's hat and hair.

"I believe in you, Vanellope," he told her softly, his voice so low the president honestly doubted (and hoped) no one else had even heard his kind words of support.

At his piercing eyes and strong, calm smile, Vanellope's smirk was instantly wiped off her face and was replaced by a small gasp, another deep blush and a tiny, once again involuntary glitch... but this time she didn't mind. Instead, she happily let her hand stay comfortingly in Rancis'.

But when she looked deeper into Rancis' eyes and saw the unwavering loyalty, the unshakable confidence he had in her, like no matter what, she'd never let him or the other _Sugar Rush_ citizens down... a whole new fear quietly overtook Vanellope, shaking her harder than any of the strongest glitch ever could.

She forced her eyes to pull away from Rancis' penetrating eyes and looked out to the others before her, her fellow racers...her game mates, her loyal citizens under her rulership... her finally true friends after so many years of rejection...

And she saw the others and Sour Bill were standing finally in silence. Although it was clear they were still a little uncertain, unsure of what was going to happen, they were all now looking at Vanellope, their leader and president, with such strong sense of hope and confidence...And it occurred to Vanellope then that even in all of her out of uncontrollable glitching glory, her subjects _still_ believed in her without failing.

An overwhelming fear of failure or letting her citizens -her friends\- down overtook Vanellope, and at the sheer idea that her possibly weighty yet flaky plan (the only plan she had to get that replacement steering wheel, the only plan that could save their game, and possibly the arcade entirely) might not even _begin_ to work...

It was all enough nervous pressure to make Vanellope glitch sharply again, causing her to sporadically pixelate...yet somehow her hand stayed steadily in Rancis' firm but gentle grasp.

Once the glitching had subsided, it was Swizzle who voiced a concern that was clearly on every racers' mind. "Ok, great-Vanellope's got a plan to save us that involves Ralph...But where are all us racers going to stay until _Sugar Rush_ gets plugged back in tomorrow?" he asked, his eyes wide with uncertainty.

"I bet Surge will get that all figured out soon," Rancis took him, never losing his grasp on Vanellope's hand. "Why don't you guys go asked him to see if anyone else volunteered to take us in?"

As the other racers stumbled away towards Surge, Vanellope watched them go- and became resolved in one thing, some measure of confidence raising in her.

Failure was not an option for her now. Vanellope's friends, heck, her game... the entire _arcade_ , possibly, needed her- and she wasn't about to let any of them down.

As hard as it may be, she _was_ going to learn how to control her glitch again- or going to die trying to. She _was_ going to get that replacement steering wheel- and was going to convince her Stink Brain to help her get it. She was going to save _Sugar Rush_ and the arcade, come what may.

As she continued to stand still by Rancis' side, Vanellope became confident, sure more than anything that it was time for her and Wreck-It Ralph to be the arcade's heroes. Again.

Now that it was just her and Rancis, though, Vanellope realized she needed to ask him a question, hoping he'd know. It was the only 'small kink' in her plan that was troubling her. One she hadn't quite got figured out or straightened out yet...

 _What in sweet mother of monkey milk exactly is... the 'Internet'?_


	3. Chapter 2: Better...

**Chapter 2: Better..**.

 _-0-0-0-0-0-0-_

The huge crowd around the Fix-Its quickly got thinner and thinner within seconds of Vanellope's conclusion. Most characters, although feeling bad for the _Sugar Rush_ citizens, had mostly lost interest in the commotion compared to their Friday night plans that proved to be more pressing.

A handful of kindhearted game characters, like Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man, Bowser, and of course, even Ralph _did_ abandon their plans for the evening and went to approach Surge to offer some housing for the temporarily homeless _Sugar Rush_ citizens.

But at seeing the overall great lack of concern for the gameless characters, Sergeant Calhoun couldn't help but snarl in disgust. She began to complain, mumbling out some fairly unkind words under her breath about the characters dispersing around her.

"Sure, Vanellope's answer on the whole 'Out of Order' thing because of some irate player's kicking seems a little thick to me," she suddenly voiced out loudly beside Felix, "but I can't believe most of these jerks around us don't seem to even care about those sugar-crazed characters."

Felix, for his part, placed his gloved hands on his hips, chewing over her words with a look of concern on his own face. As he looked over to see were Surge stood talking, the handyman realized that his wife was right, of course- of the large crowd of game characters that had been standing around them just moments before, relatively few were approaching Surge to offer help.

Most of the random varieties of walking candies and dessert-themed treats were now following non- _Sugar Rush_ characters to their new temporary homes, thankfully taken care for the night and possibly into tomorrow...but most of the _Sugar Rush_ children, the racers and avatars in the game, stood anxiously waiting for someone to take them in as well, with no one stepping forward.

Calhoun found herself growling out loud in anger again, glaring at Nina Willams as the female wrestler lumbered by her. "Can't more characters offer _some_ housing for these kids?"

"I guess most of these characters are just not in a position to offer even a little help, hun," Felix reassured his wife gently. "Or their own games don't have the room for many of the sugary characters, if _any_ of them, actually."

"Still," Calhoun murmured as she shook her messy bangs out of her eyes, hands placed firmly on her hips. "These losers around us could offer these poor kids _something_."

Slightly amused by his wife's concern for the gameless _Sugar Rush_ characters welfare, Felix couldn't help but smile affectionately up at her. Although she was as tough as nails with a pair of fist to go along with it, Tamora Calhoun was programmed with such a strong sense of justice for others, but especially for children.

The handyman's loving gaze quickly shifted to look over to see that the last bit of candies being lead off to hide out in the games of _Pac-Man_ and _Mrs.Pac_ - _Man_. As he did, Felix also saw Ralph, who had quickly stumbled off after talking with Surge to approach the Leader of _Sugar Rush_ and get more answers from her.

"Well, we know _Vanellope's_ taken care of, at least," Felix chuckled out, trying to find the silver lining. "Ralph's goin' to offer his shack as a place for that little kiddo to stay, without a doubt. That's good, right?"

"But what about the _rest_ of the avatars?" Calhoun asked, roughly pushing Donkey Kong out of the way as he accidentally bumped into her and glared back. "They can't just stay out here in the station. I mean, they're just _kids_ for Cy-Bug's sake!"

Felix eyed up at his wife curiously, surprised at her sharp words. He was used to her rough demeanor... but she seemed _really_ above and beyond agitated others weren't trying to help the children of _Sugar Rush._

He followed her gaze to see that she was now solely focused on the _Sugar Rush_ children, who eyes were wide and clearly scared as they now waited beside Surge Protector. Although he was too far away to hear what was being said, it was clear to Felix that there weren't any other game characters offering any housing for the other racers of _Sugar Rush_ \- and Surge Protector was starting to panic a little himself.

As he looked back up at his wife, Felix was slightly taken at her narrowed, determined eyes...that were so soft at the same time. They seemed filled with pity and sympathy for the temporary homeless children of _Sugar Rush._

Sure, Felix had been shocked to learn over these past 6 years that Sergeant Calhoun, albeit hidden, indeed had a 'soft' spot for _all_ the children-like characters in the arcade...But still, the chipper little man couldn't help but be surprised by the strongness of the affection his wife seemed to now have in her eyes for the _Sugar Rush_ children.

There was something deeper within those eyes of her, something hidden way down deep that only Felix and very few others knew about- something that wanted to come out so desperately...a strange emptiness wanting to be filled, a longing, even maybe...

Felix shook his head free of the sad thought and looked up at his wife with soft, understanding eyes.

"Well, everyone has to worry about their own games, too, Sweetheart," he reasoned with her. "There is _no tellin' how_ long _Sugar Rush_ will actually end up being unplugged. Sure, Vanellope had said just until tomorrow, but that could be until sometime _late_ tomorrow, or could even become _days_ from now. And, well...the more characters from another game that you have, along with the longer they are in your game, the more likely those characters will end up bein' noticed during gameplay," he told her logically, which Calhoun knew deep down was true.

"I mean, I'd offer _Fix-It Felix Jr_. if I thought even a small few of the racers could comfortably fit and stay hidden enough durin' gameplay tomorrow...," Felix added softly, helping his wife to see he was eager to help, too. "But Vanellope might be the only _Sugar Rush_ character our game can safely and comfortably house without bein' noticed by any of the players tomorrow."

He softly patted Calhoun's hand, the only part of her upper body that he was really able to reach comfortably from where he stood on the floor.

"But...it'll get better for them, you'll see," Felix told her gently, although his words failed to do much for his dearly concerned wife.

Suddenly determined to comfort her and help the children in the process, the fixer pulled the bill of his cap down a little more onto his head, a habit he more than often did in an attempt to somehow think clearer.

"What is needed here," the handyman thought out loud, "is a game that has a large in-game area, with _a lot_ of it off-screen so no players can possibly see the _Sugar Rush_ racers durin' gameplay..."

He trailed off, his mind failing to think of a suitable game that fit those needs to a tee. He placed a hand on his chin, and even tapped one of his work boots, trying his hardest to come up with at least one game that could work...

After a mere second went by of uninterrupted silence, Felix hopelessly peered up at his wife for any suggestions... to see that she was already eyeing down at him. And it was terrifyingly clear by the look on her face just what she was thinking.

Without a word, the war-woman raised a confirming eyebrow down at her husband, and he slowly began to raise both of his back up at her. It was clear to Calhoun that although he was shock and a little unsure, Felix was slowly beginning to think the exact same thing she was...although it scared the living _boo_ at of him.

At their unspoken agreement, Calhoun gritted her jaw close as a slow smirk appeared across it. She then marched off towards where Surge stood talking to most of the homeless _Sugar Rush_ children.

"I don't know how these sugar children are going to hold up or even _survive_ a fierce game like _Hero's Duty_ until their jovial game gets plugged back in," she called over her shoulder as she beckoned Felix to follow her, "but they sure as heck are going to have to give it try."

 _-0-0-0-0-0-_ _0-_

Nearly tripping over a shocked Princess Peach, who quickly scrambled out of the way, Ralph finally found himself standing in clear floor space big enough for his large size.

He had weaved through hundreds of different characters, his march made even harder and all the more tedious with all those characters now moving in a hundred different directions. It had taken him a few minutes, but he had _finally_ made it to Surge to confirm he'd take Vanellope in for the night, and even into tomorrow if needed.

Ralph desperately wanted to ask Surge further questions but was unable as the blue man suddenly slipped through the floor and over to another possible volunteer to help the last few remaining candies needing a temporary home. The wrecker quickly decided to abandon his search for answers, knowing that the second he found Vanellope, he'd get them, anyway.

At the remembrance of his little sister, the bad guy turned this way and that, attempting to at least spot her mint green hoodie- but there were still too many characters on the station's floor for him to see.

Unable to spot her, Ralph made his way over to where he had last seen Vanellope- although she, as tiny as she was, was now unseen because she had apparently hopped off her oreo guards.

 _Must get to her,_ Ralph panicked as he searched around for her, the last few remaining characters blurring together around him. _I must get to her...If anything is seriously wrong...If anything happens to her..._

He suddenly forced to pause in the middle of his searching, not even realizing how fast he'd been rushing- or how out of breath he was now. With his huge hands on his knees, Ralph slowly began panting, his mind struggling to keep up.

As he straightened up and looked around for one last time for his little sister, Ralph couldn't help but feel a smile tug at his lips as he could finally caught a glimpse of that mint green hoodie...Then that high ponytail of raven black hair with random pieces of candy in it... and finally most of Vanellope herself. He found himself relieved as he saw where she currently stood, safely in his sight.

But that affectionate smile on Ralph's face quickly disappeared and turned into a worried frown when more gaming characters hustled out of his view of her, and he could see the scene a little bit more clear of where his kid stood...and who was exactly standing with her.

 _No_ , his mind denied, _she's not really holding hands with...that Rancid boy?!_ Ralph mentally shouted, his frown becoming an all-out snarl of disgust and anger.

Subconsciously balling up his large hands into even larger fists out of shock and anger, Ralph took off in a ground- rumbling march- although this unhappy feeling he felt due to the blond racer wasn't anything really new.

Ralph's hatred for Rancis had steadily grown stronger and stronger over the past 6 years, ironically and 'coincidentally' as Vanellope and said blond boy had become closer and closer. And despite Vanellope claiming that Rancis was the only racer who has really "understood" her and had always supported her as a president and leader, Ralph _still_ hated the boy with a passion.

The wrecker, much like an over-protective, over-dramatic parent or big brother, always tended to think the worse when the two children were spotted strolling together in _Sugar Rush_. He often voiced to an eye-rolling Vanellope that he couldn't _stomach_ the idea of the two kids being anything more than 'just friends' -and swore that until his final game that he was going to make sure the two kids just remained friends, if even _that_.

But the blind rage Ralph had for Rancis now (who actually dared to hold the hand of the wrecker's 'little girl' in such an emotionally trying day for the man) became overpowering, almost even _deadly_.

Ralph didn't care if there _was_ something crucially wrong with _Sugar Rush_ , or Vanellope _did_ need some support and comfort from a fellow racer like Rancis- stubborn Ralph wasn't going to let that 'little digital turd of a racing boy' get in the way of his and Vanellope's dear friendship...

At the moment, the wrecker forgot he even hated the boy. He now flat-out _loathed_ that 'Rancid' brat- and intended on making that very, _very_ clear.

His eye slightly twitching in anger and his lips curled into a half snarl, Ralph continued to storm off across the station, the ground shaking underneath him before he ever even got to the two children. Fortunately, most of the station's lingering characters were smart enough to desperately get out of the way, making Ralph's stomp to the pair of children that much shorter and somehow more fierce.

Upon seeing and, well, feeling him approach, however, Vanellope failed to see her best friend's clear anger and rage. All she could see was her best friend, her beloved, gentle-hearted Stink Brain himself.

Immediately let go of Rancis' calming grasp, the little girl was already off and running towards the wrecker before he could even reach where the two children were standing.

"Ralph!" Vanellope cried happily, excitedly jumping up onto his chest and wrapped her hands around his neck. "I'm _soooo_ glad to see you!"

Ralph halted in his march and was taken a little aback by her warm embrace...but his shock didn't last for long. The child's gentle, tiny hands around his neck and the overwhelming, somehow comforting smell of sugar in her hair was enough to instantly cause a lighthearted Ralph to forget being angry (and worried, even). He softened his tension and allowed himself to heartedly yet gently hug the little girl back.

Ralph felt his eyes close briefly in sheer, uninterrupted bliss and happiness as he sighed in peace. And it suddenly felt to him as if it was only the two of them, him and Vanellope, there in the arcade, the _universe_ in fact, as it often did when they would reunite after a long day of being apart from each other. The two of them were close, unshakably, undeniably, inseparably close, after all- and everything was finally alright, was all better in Ralph's small world again when he had Vanellope, his little girl, his little sister, close to him and in his arms once again where she belonged.

But everything wasn't alright and _nothing_ was really better as Ralph was forced to remind himself. Because he couldn't help but noticed that Vanellope's hug seemed tighter, tenser, even more _desperate_ this time than it ever had before- and all at once he remembered just what was going on, the serious, strange situation that his friend found herself in. And suddenly he recalled what he had been dying to ask the girl since he stepped into the arcade's Game Central Station.

"Kid," he whispered softly into Vanellope's hair before he opened his eyes and gently pulled her back so he could see her wide, worried filled eyes. "What the heck is _really_ going on?"

 _-0-0-0-0-0-_ _0-_

Later on that evening, Vanellope sat right beside Ralph, as she always did at _Tapper's_ on a Friday night, allowing the wrecker to subconsciously run his large hand dotingly over her high ponytail. As they sat at a booth that proved to be way too small for the large, kind man, Calhoun and Felix sat across from them, inconspicuously holding hands underneath the table top as the four of them waiting for their drinks to arrive at their table.

The evening gathering of the four friends wasn't an unusual sight at _Tapper's_ on a Friday evening- in fact, most of the patrons for the game expected to spot the group there at the end of each work week, and it had somehow became a sight that Tapper's, the main character of the game itself, came to strangely rely on as a true signal that the end of the week was indeed here.

Yes, everything appeared to be just as normal as any other Friday night for the four friends and their silent, unseen spectators- but it wasn't, far from it.

The game of _Tapper's_ was more packed than usual, for one thing, filled with more patrons than after the whole ' _Sugar Rush_ fever' that had overtaken the station. Hundreds of different characters, big and small, now happily filled the root beer game, calling out heartily for refills or to get their bills.

And the busier the game was, of course, the busier Tapper himself was, rushing this way and that to take and fill as many orders as one 8-bit character could manage to do by himself. And the more characters requesting root beers in the game also meant the longer Ralph, Vanellope, and the Fix-Its had to wait for their orders to be filled.

Normally, such waiting bothered the four, waiting to get their drinks and get a move on to go on some crazy game jumping adventure. But this go-around, the waiting proved that much more difficult for them...with Vanellope vowing she wouldn't tell any of them anything until she had a root beer in her hand.

Instead of giving up and leaving, however, the tiny, odd family of sorts was able to mentally busy themselves while they waited... their minds filled with the weighty events the night had already brought them and how it all now was plaguing each of them with pure, unrestrained worry.

Each fidgeting in the seats, Vanellope, Ralph and the Fix-It couple thought about how just a little over an hour ago so much had already happened...

Like how, after reuniting with Vanellope, Ralph told her that she was staying with him while _Sugar Rush_ was unplugged, not caring _how_ long she'd have to stay. Vanellope happily and excitedly accepted his offer, although Ralph did purposely exclude Rancis from that plan despite Vanellope's constantly pleading he'd allow her fellow (and favorite) _Sugar Rush_ racer to stay with them. But Ralph wouldn't budge, earning a serious 'hard' punch on one of his big, bulky arms from his put-out friend...but the wrecker ended up earning an even 'harder' punch and a tight hair pull when he accidentally let his unkind nickname for the blond-haired racer slip out.

Unfortunately, in her moment of fury, Vanellope had glitched unwillingly again, causing Ralph almost to go into 'game over' mood. He panicked and worried and fretted about it (as Vanellope knew he would when he found out about her glitching uncontrollably again) until Vanellope commanded him to 'stay calm' and that she was working on getting it under control again.

Of course, Ralph had asked her why she was glitching uncontrollably and what really happened to _Sugar Rush_ , and a whole bunch of others questions that Vanellope was already cringing about having to answer. But she wouldn't tell him, already vowing to herself not to tell him anything until all 3 of her closest friends were with her, being Ralph himself and both Felix and Calhoun, and not until she had an ice cold root beer in her hand from Tapper's. She claimed she was "going to need a drink" in order to explain it all to her friends.

Forced to give up on getting any more information beforehand (although Vanellope _did_ tell him that she needed his help with a vital 'plan' she had), Ralph had begrudgingly followed Vanellope to _Tapper's_ to get a table and wait for Calhoun and Felix to meet them there, worrying the entire time.

Both of the Fix-Its, meanwhile, had been helping the rest of the _Sugar Rush_ racers (including Rancis) get somewhat settled in their new place to rest: a closed off part of the Soldier's Quarters of _Hero's Duty._ It was the only place in the entire war-like game where the characters (and its' new-found guests) could safely get some relief and sleep from the deadly Cy-Bugs roaming around deeper inside the game.

Of course, upon entering the dark, scary game, Taffyta, Candlehead and most of the other girl racers had whined repeatedly that it whole idea of staying in the war game was a 'bad idea' and that they all were 'doing to die', whereas Gloyd, Swizzle, Rancis and even Minty could only exclaim a few 'ooh's and 'awe's over the whole high tech, dangerous game they'd be camping in.

Calhoun had heartily agreed to give the excited boys (and the tomboy Minty) a 'safe' tour of her game, (although Swizzle ended up trailing behind once and almost got eaten by a Cy-Bug). Felix, meanwhile, helped the other children get more comfortable in the game, telling them that they'd get 'used to' the scary, unsettling noises in the game and to not worry about a thing- he and Calhoun would take extra good care of them.

And then after they knew the kids were as safe and settled as they could possibly be, Calhoun and Felix had bolted to find Ralph and Vanellope inside the full-housed _Tapper's_ to get some much- needed answers.

But now finally the close four friends were now all together...although each was quiet, unnervingly quiet as they anxiously waited for their drinks to arrive...And then, in turn, for Vanellope to discuss in details what had happened to and in her game.

As they waited for the drinks and explanation, Felix gulped from time to time and, never one too fond of silence, found himself being the only one making any noise. He drummed his fingers on the table without even noticing the annoyed glares his wife was giving him between taps and looking around for Tapper's to bring their drinks, herself getting antsy.

On Ralph's part, he kept his eyes solely on Vanellope, trying to read between the lines on his best friend's little face and to somehow pull more information out of her huge eyes. She was clearly worried about her game, but there something else going on. Something wrong.. and something _major_ that she wasn't telling them.

Instead of spilling the details under pressure, Vanellope just silently squirmed under Ralph's visual interrogation, unable to keep still as she wiggled in her seat. She resorted to avoiding his gaze altogether and forced her mind to focus deeper about her plan, getting each moving part straightened out- or _attempting_ to, at least.

Just when Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun thought they couldn't take the suspense of not knowing any more, Tapper's finally arrived. After offering his apologies for the long wait and his condolences to Vanellope after what he had heard had happened to _Sugar Rush_ , Tapper's set the four friends' drinks down on the table, effortlessly sliding one drink to each person.

The second the mug reached Vanellope's hand, Ralph exploded and broke the silence filling the thick air.

"Ok, you got your drink," he rushed out as he turned to face Vanellope, "now tell me what the heck is going on! _Why_ are you glitching uncontrollably again?! And why-"

"Wait- Candy Queen is glitching out of wack again?!" Calhoun spat out, her voiced coated with shock- and worry. "When did _that_ start?!"

"Earlier today, apparently," Ralph hissed out, glaring slightly down at Vanellope with sharp eyes, although it was strangely clear it was more out of concern than any real anger. "And it's even _worse_ than it was before-"

Before she could even begin to refute such a claim, a sudden and strong glitch overtook Vanellope, so strong that there was no way to stop it from overtaking her. She pixelated on top of the table's edge without warning, causing her to flail her arms around to try and prevent herself from falling off the table.

At see Vanellope about to fall, Ralph immediately stopped his arguing and instructively was able to snatch up the glitching little girl before she fell off the table head first.

Sighing in relief and slight exhaustion, Vanellope looked up at Ralph, thankful for his catch.

The glitching caused both Felix and Calhoun, seeing that Ralph's words were indeed true, to jump in shock. They both were neither willing nor able to comprehend that the child was unable to control her glitch once again after it had been so in check for so long.

"Oh, _no_ ," Felix breathed out, panic causing his eyes to flash wide as while he animatedly grabbed onto his worker's hat with one hand. "You _are_ glitchin' badly again, Sugar Cube! WHY, sweetheart?" he asked Vanellope desperately.

Before she could answer, the little man twisted up his face in anger at a possible answer to his question. "Does it have anythin' to do with that-that _brute_ of a boy that kicked your game? Pardon my potty mouth, but if it is, so help me- I'll, I'll-"

"What, _fix_ him to death, Hammer Head?" Ralph mocked him harshly. "Besides, even _if_ any of us could wreck that human boy, it wouldn't do Vanellope any good - she's already glitching bad and her game is already unplugged, so-"

"Why really _is_ your game unplugged, anyways, Speed Demon?" Calhoun interrupted as she barked at Vanellope, although her eyes were slightly softer when looking at the child than they were earlier. "Does it have something to do with your code spazzing out like that? Or did that delinquent player somehow mess up _Sugar Rush_ with his foot worse than you told everyone it did...or..." She paused to eye Vanellope as the child still sat in Ralph's protective arms. "Or is something _else_ going on inside the game that you're not telling us?"

"Well, _of course_ , something else is going on, Officer Numbskull!" Ralph yelled at Calhoun, once again before Vanellope could answer. "Why do you _think_ Litwak really unplugged the game?"

 _Where's Rancis' ear-splitting whistle when a girl needs it?_ The child mentally whined to herself as she waited for Calhoun to undoubtedly hiss out her reply.

"Watch who you're calling Numbskull there, Wreck-It," Calhoun narrowed her eyes across the table, forcing herself to not jump up and easily tackle the 9-foot tall man down to the floor.

As he glared back across at her sharply, Ralph spat out, "Yeah, well, don't ask such stupid questions next time and I _won't_ then, Numbskull."

Seeing the now killer glares his wife and co-worker were giving each other, Felix quickly butted in. "Now, now," he began shakily, subconsciously placing a tiny arm across his wife to prevent her from jumping up. "Let's all just take a deep, caaalmin' breath, and then we can-"

"WOULD YOU THREE JUST SHUT UP ALREADY, PLEASE?!" Vanellope, having enough, suddenly screamed out loudly as she jumped onto the table top.

Her little outburst cause Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun to stop their nervous speculating, insults and glares and to jump sharply in their seats...along with the rest of the characters in the root beer game.

Seeing many different eyes staring at her from the surrounding tables, Vanellope blushed quietly. She just wanted the stupid, squabbling adults directly around her to shut up- not to cause a big seen in _Tapper's_. The child glared at the three childish adults sitting at her table.

" _Please_ ," she breathed out, her voice much quieter now as it seeped through gridded teeth, although not any less angry. "I'm going to tell you three idiots what really happened if you guys can just _shut your chew holes for a split second!_ Your stupid fighting isn't going to make anything better!"

At her sharp words, Ralph and the Fix-Its eyed her and each other wearily but got the point. Calhoun and Ralph narrowed their eyes at each other on last time, but then each gave Vanellope a silent nod.

At the now once again silence filling the air, Vanellope silently hopped back down into her original seat. After getting settled in, she calmly grabbed her mug and took a strong, long drink of her root beer, then set her glass down with a loud _clink_.

The child eyed the three adults, _her_ three adults who formed her strange family, now eagerly waiting for her explanation of it all... And desperately wanting to help her any way they could- to fix anything, if Felix could, or wreck anything, if Ralph could, or _blow up_ anything she could with the very best blaster she had, if Calhoun could. They all wanted to do all they possibly could in order to make things safer, better for the youngest member of their family.

But although Vanellope appreciated their concern for her, she could only think one thing as she sighed heartily.

 _It's g_ _oing to be a looooong night..._


	4. Chapter 3: Faster

**Chapter** **3: Faster...**

- _0-0-0-0-0-0-_

"Like I said earlier in my speech," Vanellope began to tell them, "that kid who kicked my game was mad that I wasn't winning. In fact," she paused to clear her throat forcefully, then mumbled out: "I was actually coming in the last place."

The three adults around her were quiet now, not wanting to get yelled at again as Vanellope finally told them her explanation of what really happened to _Sugar Rush_. They all sat in silence as they eagerly waited for her to continue.

"Anyways," she rolled her eyes, her voice back to being normal as she continued to explain, "I decided to glitch my way up to the lead, something I do during every race. I was in the middle of glitching to try and get ahead of Taffyta, who was in the lead when that stupid but strong kick came out of nowhere. I guess I wasn't glitching fast or far up ahead enough for that stupid player or something; I don't really know _why_ he kicked the cabinet- or why he had to kick it so hard.

"Many of the other racers swerved at the impact of the kicking," Vanellope continued, "and they were somehow able to recover from it fairly quickly and be unnoticeable...but with me...," she gulped quietly.

"I was so shaken up by the forceful kick of the kid that I...well, I couldn't control my glitch very well," she admitted softly, staring solely at her mug in embarrassment. "I glitched, not _in_ _front_ of Taffyta, but _on_ _top_ _of_ _her kart._ And that caused us to go spinning out of control and land into a row of lollipops growing on the sideline. Which lead to Gloyd getting the lead and winning the race, ending the whole thing and causing the kicking kid to storm off in anger."

As Ralph, Felix and Calhoun shared a round of startled gasp, Vanellope quickly straightened up in her seat.

"Oh, Tafftya and I were both fine, for the most part," she reassured them, "but...her kart didn't come out so good. When we crash, she was gripping the steering wheel so hard that it broke off. She was able to crawl out of the crash pretty quickly, but I had to wait for help getting out of the kart because...I was so shaken up that I started...glitching, involuntarily for the first time in 6 years."

The child shook her head, her fingers pressing on her temples as she tried to mentally figure out how it all had happened. "I guess I had glitched too much during that race, or too fast or something, and with the kick startling me so badly like it, I guess my code just wigged out from it all.

"I glitched and glitched," Vanellope continued to admit, starting to shake slightly as she stared blankly ahead. Ralph began to gently stroke her hair again to seek to comfort her. "It was some of the worse glitching I had ever done, pre-reset or not. I couldn't even attempt to move with my arms or legs without them glitching out of control. It was awful. It was so bad, in fact, that it began to affect our interlocked _karts_ , causing them to glitch badly, too."

The ashamed child paused to stare down at her fidgeting hands in guilt. "And, well... my glitching ended up causing Taffyta's broken steering wheel to completely disappear into thin air, turning into mere scattered code fragments because it was no longer attached to anything solid enough to handle such a strong glitching..."

 _So it_ _was_ _that kickin' kid's fault for her bad glitchin',_ Felix silently realized in anger, although he didn't dare express it out loud. _And other serious problems of the game._

"Meanwhile, outside the game, Mr.Litwak noticed the brat's kicking," Vanellope found the courage to look up at her friends. "And it caused him to chew out the brat of a kid _pret-ty_ badly."

She chuckled despite herself, shaking her head at the memory. "I thought the old man was going to have a _stroke_ he was so angry at the kid. It was kinda funny seeing ole' Litwak that riled up.

"Anyways, after that, some other kid that had been watching the race told Litwak about seeing Taffyta's and my crash," Vanellope informed them, "although the kid couldn't see all the bad-glitching-and-steering-wheel-disappearing action going on; _that_ was all off-screen where the players couldn't see."

 _Which is why Felix and I didn't see it, either,_ Ralph connected silently in his mind.

"And," Vanellope continued, "the other kid had seen Gloyd when he got his trophy, too- and noticed it was all pink and glitter instead of yellow. At all of that news, of course, Mr.Litwak immediately became concerned that there were some problems for _Sugar Rush_ due from the kicking. He quickly looked _at the side_ at the game cabinet, and, seeing nothing there, I guess, he then looked _into_ the game's cabinet while the game was still plugged in to see if everything was running smoothly. _He_ could see nothing wrong inside it, so he told the players it was ok to play and just let the whole "kart-crash" Taff and I had go, and that the pink trophy was probably just a fluke thing, that'd it probably go away in the next game.

"But then," she went on, "players began to play, and started complaining about the jacked up scoreboard the game was experiencing and the stupid pink trophy _Sugar Rush_ was _still_ having despite several different rounds...But the biggest complaints were that Tafftya and I weren't popping up as avatars anymore."

"Wait, why weren't you up on the roster anymore?" Ralph asked softly, the first question that was asked out loud since Vanellope began to explain what happened.

"Well, it's pretty hard to race without a steering wheel on your kart, Stink Brain," Vanellope joked softly, rolling her eyes with a smirk. "So, Tafftya was out. With me...well," she eyed him with wide, slightly scared eyes, "I've still been... glitching involuntarily ever since the kick. And although the glitching episodes have not nearly as bad or as _often_ as it was earlier, after the whole steering wheel disappearing thing...I thought it'd be safest for everyone if I didn't race until I could control it again.

"And," Vanellope continued to reason, "although Mr.Litwak has already become well aware of my glitching over these past 6 years, I didn't want him to get even _more_ concerned than he was after hearing about my crash, and I didn't want him to _see_ me glitch uncontrollably and all... so I decided to hide out in the game instead of being on screen."

The child's three friends were quiet for a moment, chewing over the child's words.

 _That's_ _why Gloyd, Candlehead, and possibly others could race and win,_ Ralph connected her words to his earlier previous wondering. _Both of t_ _heir strongest competitors were out of the race._

"So...what ended up happening, Fart Feathers?" the wrecker then pushed the child softly, begging for her to continue. "Why did _Sugar Rush_ end up getting unplugged then?"

"Well, after all the complaints," Vanellope sighed in response, "Mr.Litwak called in the arcade's new maintenance man, Steve, I think his name is, and he unplugged us _temporarily_ and looked inside our cabinet where Litwak couldn't see. He saw a piece of the data board was ever so slightly crooked from the kid's kicking, and, straightening up that one piece, he was able to fix the trophy and scoreboard, which were stored on that data board...But straightening up that board did _not_ fix the steering wheel, and, of course, not my glitching."

"What- why didn't that fix the steerin' wheel?" Felix asked, his kind eyes wide. "I get the glitchin' -nothin' at this point could fix that, but... why not the steerin' wheel?"

"Well, the 'maintenance work' he did apparently _only_ fixed a part of the programming, like the trophy or scoreboard, both that are stored on that data board," Vanellope explained. "But he couldn't -and _can't,_ actually- just _reprogram_ or _repair_ a part of the game that's _not_ apart of that data board, like, say, a broken, now decoded steering wheel.

"Anyways," she shrugged, "after Steve's fixing, _Sugar Rush_ was replugged then, causing _all_ of us avatars and our karts to appear onscreen for the startup- including _me,_ and, of course, in all my uncontrollable glitching glory," she growled, her voice dripping with ugly sarcasm, "and, of course, Tafftya's poor, undrivable kart showed up as well."

Overwhelmed with guilt, Vanellope glitched softly out of nowhere again, causing the other three to jump slightly in alarm. But now having Ralph's reassuring touch of his strong yet gentle fingers running over her hair, the child felt herself start to calm down enough to continue.

"It was then Mr.Litwak -and Steve the maintenance guy- noticed how bad and uncontrollable my glitching was," she told them, "and that Tafftya's kart was now 'suddenly' missing its' steering wheel...and Steve then asked Mr.Litwak if my character had _always_ done that, the bad glitching, and Litwak told him as long as he could remember these 6 years I had, just not as _bad_ as I was suddenly now. And when he pointed out that Tafftya's kart was fine _before_ I started glitching all crazy like that, Steve -as caveman-y as he looks," she had the strength to scoff, "was somehow smart enough to put the two-and-two together and, well..

"Long story short," Vanellope sighed dramatically, tracing the rim of her now empty mug with her finger as she laid her cheek in her other hand. "Along the "mysterious" missing steering wheel, the maintenance man thinks _Sugar Rush_ might...um, well, uh..."

The child winced at the thought of admitting the dreaded truth out loud before she decided to abandon her tracing of her mug. She leaned closer into the middle of the table, waving to invite her three friends to do the same.

"..Steve thinks _Sugar Rush_ has... a ' _virus_ ' now because of my glitching..."

"A VIRUS?!" Felix screamed out, causing every head in _Tapper's_ to turn and look at the four friends, a look of confusion...and instant worry on their faces, like only the word _'virus_ ' could cause in an arcade.

Calhoun quickly slapped a hand over her husband's mouth, hoping his little outburst would only cause a spectacle and not a stampede. " _Shh_ , Pint Size!" She hissed before Vanellope could, her voice sharp and serious. "There's no need to cause arcade-wide _mayhem_!"

"Yeah, Felix," Vanellope growled with a low voice as the little man eyed her innocently. "Why do ya think Surge and I didn't just _announce_ that little bit of info for _the whole arcade_ to hear earlier?! Not only it's _not_ true, but it could cause the whole arcade to go _wacko_ , even if everyone just thought _Sugar_ _Rush did_ have a..," she paused to look over her shoulder, then glared back at him, "a 'you-know-what'!"

"Exactly, though," Ralph butted in, shaking his head. "It isn't a, um, 'you-know-what'. It's just your glitching, which is just in your code! Sure, you lost control of it a little, but you can learn to control it again, right? Like you did 6 odd years ago?"

"Exactly!" Vanellope explained before deflating back into her seat. "But either Steve nor Litwak know that, of course, especially not with the steering wheel disappearing now." She leaned forward again, resting her chin in one of her hands. "So now _both_ are just worried about _Sugar Rush_ and the rest of the games here in the arcade...which is why Steve advised that it'd be best to shut down _Sugar Rush_ at least for the night...just to 'make sure' the other games don't get the 'you-know-what'."

"Which is why...you guys got unplugged..." Felix slowly connected the dots. "And why you couldn't just outright announce that earlier."

"And why Surge Protector was involved in all this," Calhoun added.

"Bingo," Vanellope mumbled with a weak eye roll before laying her head on the table top in all too real misery. "But it gets worse... _Now_ Mr.Litwak looked into...," she paused to lift her head up and sit up a little straighter, squirming slightly. "Well...an _anti-virus_ program to install in _Sugar Rush_ and the rest of the games here in the arcade, just to be on the 'safe side'."

The three adults gawked at her news -which now involved _their_ games as well- before Calhoun finally broke the silence.

"Oh, that doesn't sound good. At all." She voiced out loud, a noticeable shiver running down her spine. "I've heard absolute _horror_ stories of arcades who got an anti-virus system installed in their games... and the games ended up _getting,_ well, 'y'all-know-what's instead of _being protected_ from them. In fact," she shook her head, her bangs bouncing from side to side. "I've heard of _whole arcades_ getting shut down because of an outbreak due from such 'protecting programmes'."

At her disheartening news, Felix paled immediately, gulping in uneasiness. But Ralph, however, just flat-out glared at the woman, angry that she even thought about bringing something like that up. He even rolled his eyes dismissively at her words, unable to fathom that a whole arcade could be that affected by one anti-virus system.

"No, she's right!" Vanellope butted in upon seeing Ralph's dismissive, annoyed demeanor. "I've heard that about those systems, too. And it's all so stupid and pointless," she growled, crossing her arms over her chest. "Because even if the anti-virus system _is_ safe for our games, no anti-virus program can fix the steering wheel, let alone my glitching! And it can't protect the other games from something _Sugar Rush_ does not even have to spread!"

The child sighed and flopped back into her seats, exhausted by her outburst of anger. Her renewed guilt washed over her again like a forceful, strong tidal wave.

Not only has her glitching effected her game and her friends in it, but now it's caused issues fast for everyone else in the arcade- including her beloved 'family' of sorts sitting around her then.

"So... I'm not sure _how_ that Steve guy is going to respond when my glitching isn't fixed when the program used on us 'fails' to eliminate a virus that isn't there," she moaned out what the others themselves were thinking. "He may think that something even _more_ serious is going on in the game- and convibce Litwak of it, too."

Vanellope found herself looking up at Ralph solely then, her beautiful, expressive hazel eyes piercing him like a double-edged sword. "And although Litwak is aware that my glitching isn't _usually_ a mess up to the game, it, along with the missing steering wheel... may be enough to move him to unplug _Sugar Rush_ _forever_ , for "the sake" other games in the arcade."

The three adults around her, once so vocal and loud about their opinions and worries, now sat completely stoic and silent, unable to even think how to respond to _Sugar Rush_ 's more-than-likely fate.

Felix felt his eyes water up and futilely looked up at his wife for help. But she was in no better shape- although looking away sharply from any eye contact, it was clear in her deep blue eyes that she was pained at the news, too.

Ralph himself felt like the sharp, deep breath he had found himself choking on was enough to suffocate him. His mind tried to wrap around just what that fate could mean for his tiny best friend, but it was like a fog had overtaken his mind- protecting it, maybe, from an all-out panicky reaction.

"Oh, kid," he sighed out, his eyebrows scrunching together in worry as he looked away from Vanellope's slightly disheartened face.

 _No,_ he forced himself to deny, gulping down the huge knot in his throat. _This can't not be happening..._

 _If anything happens to this kid..._ _my kid..._

"When is Litwak installing it? The anti-virus system?" Calhoun suddenly asked, her voice clear that she wasn't giving up yet as she turned to look at Vanellope dead on. "Maybe...maybe there will be enough time for you to control your glitch again and to get a replacement steering wheel somehow before he installs it in _Sugar Rush_..."

"Yeah...it seems like if you can get a new steering wheel for Taff's kart," Ralph found himself agreeing with the woman he was at odds with just minutes ago. "And, of course, you control your glitch again...there _may_ be some hope..."

"Well, he's installing it sometime tomorrow morning, so there's not much time," Vanellope answered quietly before suddenly her face filled with hope. "But-"

"No...there's _got_ to be some way!" Felix squawked suddenly, tears of panic still fresh in his eyes as he banged a fist as hard as he could on the table top. "So help me, I will _not_ let _Sugar Rush_ just get unplugged like this! No way, no how! And-"

"Hey, don't lose it, Hammer Head!" Vanellope, despite the heaviness in the thick air, found herself slightly chuckling at Felix' over-reaction.

"I think...no, I _know,"_ she corrected herself, "I've already got a plan on how it fix all this mess I've gotten us into! A fast-action plan," she smiled widely, "that might not only save _Sugar Rush_ from getting unplugged permanently but prevent Mr.Litwak from thinking the rest of the arcade 'needs' the anti-virus program in the first place!"

At her expressed hopefulness, the others around lit up as well- but Vanellope rushed on before any of them could ask any more about it.

"And it's called...," the small child paused for dramatic effect, smirking devilishly as her friends hung onto her every word... " ' _The Internet!' "_

As Vanellope sat in her place to the booth, trying not to wig out with excitement, she looked her friends with eyes eager for their reaction...which wasn't all too much.

Felix scratched his head and then cocked it to one side at the strange word he had never heard before. Ralph scrunched up his eyebrows again, this time with confusion as he tried to figure out what the heck Vanellope was talking about.

 _What in blue blazes is-_

"The Internet?" Calhoun breathed out as she repeated the word the child, her eyebrows raised and her eyes themselves openly shocked for once. "Like _T_ _he_ Internet?"

Vanellope squealed excitedly and smiled widely again as she bounced on her knees. "Yup! _The_ Internet!"

"Wait, wait," Ralph asked as his eyes bounced back and forth between the girls. "Can one of you fill me and Felix in on what the heck this 'the Internet' thing is?"

"It's a global computer network that provides a variety of information and communication facilities," Calhoun began, "and that consist of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols...to start off with."

Once done explaining, the woman cooly gulped down the rest of her now almost bitterly flat root beer as both Felix and Ralph stared blankly at her.

"Uh, in English, please?" Ralph finally hissed out.

"It's like a huge place that holds all kinds of information and data and all kinds of stuff, Ralph," Vanellope jumped in, excitedly bouncing at Ralph's side as she pulled on his huge arm. "And it's even got other games on it, too! Like, thousands and thousands of them! A-and it's, like, all around the world, not _just_ in our arcade!"

Felix nodded his head as a slow, intrigued smile surfaced on his face. "Huh! That sounds like it'd ought to be fasnicatin'!" he chirped.

"It sounds like it'd be interesting, to say the least," Calhoun sneered back, rolling her eyes with a smirk spreading across her face.

"It sounds like it'd be... _dangerous,_ " Ralph voiced wearily, his gut getting a queasy feeling that oddly wasn't new to him. Forcing it down, he eyed down at Vanellope curiously. "How do you even know what this Internet _is_ anyway, Kiddo?"

"Oh, I didn't know exactly what it was until Ran- er, _another racer_ told me told about it," Vanellope began before correcting herself at Ralph's raised eyebrow. "He- er, they filled me on what the Internet exactly is," she paused to smirk up into Ralph's face, "...although it's _always_ been a part of my plan!"

"What _is_ your plan there, Candy Head?" Calhoun asked, herself obviously intrigued and curious of the details. "And what in Saga's sakes does a place like the Internet have to do with it?"

Vanellope turned to mischievously eye each of her adult friends before breaking out into an all-out grin.

"Ok, so _Sugar Rush_ won't supply another steering wheel for itself, right?" She pointed out. "BUT apparently this Internet place _will_. So, I-"

"W-wait a minute, Fart Feathers," Ralph stopped her. "How do _you_ know that this Internet thing has a replacement steering wheel for your game?"

Vanellope gawked at his question as if it was the dumbest question know to arcade-character kind.

"Uh, first of all, this Internet is not a _thing,_ it's a _place_ , _ga-doi!_ " She corrected him, her sass strong as ever. "And I know it will because it has everything else in it! Ralph, I don't think you fully understand-," she suddenly smirked devilishly again and shook her head. "Oh, who am I kidding- _of course_ you don't comprehend it all. The Internet has _everything_ and _anything_ you can imagine- _including_ replacement steering wheels for gaming systems, and places to shop for such steering wheels, and-and-"

"Hidden, all-out _dangers_ that we can't even begin to fathom?!" Ralph finished for her, looking at her intensely with uneasiness.

"Hardy-har, Ralph," Vanellope dryly told him before sighing out dreamily. "No, the Internet is just _amazing_ in all ways- well, it sounds like it is, at least.

"Anyways," she continued, her mind focused again. "So here's what I'm thinking- I'll go into this Internet place, find a replacement steering wheel tonight -learning to control my glitch again in the meantime- and bring the wheel back to _Sugar Rush_ before Litwak can install the anti-virus program some time tomorrow morning. And when he can see that not only am I back to 'normal' but Taffyta's kart has the steering wheel again...," she paused to eye her friends with hope, "maybe, just _maybe_ it'll be enough to change his mind about the anti-virus program in the first place, before he installs it in _Sugar Rush_ or in any of the other games!"

The others stared at her for a split moment in time, Felix and Calhoun seeming to think over her idea...whereas Ralph nearly _choked_ on a big mouth of stale root beer he had just taken a huge drink of.

"Wha- _no_!" He screamed out loudly, coughing deeply and sporadically as drops of root beer flew all over a displeased Felix and a disgusted Calhoun sitting across from him.

At the surrounding tables, his coughing and screaming caused quite the scene, despite the fact that the root beer game was now almost completely cleared out of customers. The last few remaining regulars of the root beer eyed Ralph wearily for a moment before going back to their previous conversations.

"You- _oh, man,_ " Ralph began as he beat a huge, closed fist over his chest to clear out any of what what was left of the choking liquid and cleared his throat repeatedly for a few seconds. "Vanellope, you are _not_ going into this Internet place alone!"

To the surprise of the others, the child in question just laughed out loud at Ralph's coughing episode and his wried expression of panic. "Exactly, Ralph, my main man!" she shocked the three adults by agreeing with him. "That's why _y_ _ou're_ coming with me!"

The wrecker stared at the child completely dumbfounded, slack-jawed after her sudden revelation. " _What_?!"

"Well, Hammer Head and the Sarge here have to stay here and hold down the fort for the other _Sugar Rush_ racers," Vanellope told him bluntly as she nodded at Felix and Calhoun, "while you and I go see the world and get the replacement steering wheel in the Internet!"

Vanellope stood up in her place on her place on the booth, a look of excitement and bewilderment written all over her face as she jumped up and down beside Ralph, slight mini-glitches racing through her body.

"Come on, Stink Brain!" she smiled dramatically. "We're the _perfect_ team- I've got the brains between the two of us, obviously, and _you'd_ got the strength! It'll be fun- like going into a whole new game or something! _Blasting off_ into a whole new adventure! We'll get to see the world like never before! "

As she looked up at Ralph, he could see the look of excitement in her eyes- and he felt even more panicky than before.

"No, no- it _won't_ be, kid!" Ralph growled down at her. "We're not 'blasting off' or 'seeing the world' because it's _not_ happening! You are _not_ going into this-this _Internet_ place!"

Ralph shook his head at the thought of it- there was no way he could ever let Vanellope just endanger herself like that.

Who knows what dangers _really_ filled this Internet place? Heck, Ralph was cautious when a _new game_ was plugged into the arcade...and the Internet thing sounds like it was one big, scary, unknown game.

There could be things that the wrecker couldn't even _begin_ to apprehend, things that could quickly threaten or even _hurt_ his little sister... Not that it really mattered, since Ralph wasn't letting Vanellope touch that place with a twenty-foot pole.

The four friends -the weird little family they were- _all_ were staying in the safety of the arcade walls, and that was that...no matter _how_ distraught Vanellope may have looked at him.

"We're _not_ going into this Internet place! Vanellope, we _can't_!" Ralph pleaded with the child when she gawked at his dismissal of her plan. "It sounds like it'd waaay too _dangerous_. And besides," he pointed out, "even if we _do_ survive long enough in this Internet place to get the replacement steering wheel, come back to the arcade and fix it before Litwak installs the anti-virus system tomorrow, how's he even gonna know _Sugar Rush_ is fixed? It's unplugged!"

Despite herself, Vanellope couldn't help but laugh out loud at his 'reasoning'.

"Oh, come on! You of anyone should know how sentimental ole' man Litwak is about stuff, Ralphie," she told him with a smirk. "He's going to plug _Sugar Rush_ back in tomorrow morning to see 'with a small chance' that the...,"

The girl stopped abruptly to look around her to see that no one else was now in hearing distance of the dreaded word, although she still made sure to keep her voice low.

"...the ' _virus_ ' is gone and to see if the game is back to normal before he installs the anti-virus system...and that replacement steering wheel _is_ that 'small chance', Ralph!" She said a little louder, voice filled with valor and hope. "In fact, it may be our _only_ chance- the _whole arcade's_ only chance! Think about it- we could be the heroes of the arcade- again!"

"Vanellope, even if all that _does_ happen- before tomorrow morning, nonetheless," Ralph counteracted, finding another reason not to go along with this plan of hers filling his mind, "you're _still_ going to glitch. Even if you can get it back under control, Litwak and the maintenance guy might still think there's something wrong with the game..."

Before Vanellope could resort that reasoning, Felix hesitantly spoke up.

"But..." he began slowly, "as Vanny pointed out, Mr.Litwak already knows about her glitching...so he has to attest to the fact that it has never acted like a, well, a 'you-know-what'," he whispered softly, not wanting to get screamed at again, "before the steering wheel disappeared, and when he sees that her glitching is 'back to normal' tomorrow... with the replacement steering wheel in place..."

The fixer paused to eye Ralph inquisitively as a slow smile surfaced on his face. "I think Vanellope is on to something here, brother."

As Vanellope beamed at her surprisingly supportive friend, Ralph stared across at his colleague as if he had grown two heads.

"What- you can _not_ be serious, Felix!" he gawked out in slight horror. "No, Vanellope is _not_ 'onto something here!' Because it's _not_ happening!"

Ralph then turned to desperately reason with the kid beside him, trying to discourage her thinking as much as he possibly could- or at least find a loophole in her plan. "Vanellope, we don't even know how to get _into_ this Internet place-"

"Mr.Litwak has already connected the arcade _to_ the Internet by something called a router," Vanellope quickly told him. "And that router thing has something called wifi- which is our access to the Internet. He set it all up earlier to get ready to install the anti-virus program into _Sugar Rush_ and the other games tomorrow."

"Oh. Well...," Ralph muttered out, desperately trying to find fault in the child's plan of action. "W-we don't even know _where_ to look for the replacement steering wheel in the Internet! If it's as big you two quacky girls as it is, it could take _days_ to-"

"We can find it at a place called Ebay," Calhoun calmly interrupted him.

Once again, Ralph silently gawked at a person sitting across from him, this time being the war woman at the receiving end of his glares. He was _really_ starting to dislike this woman. " _What_?!"

"I heard of it a while back," Calhoun told him, a smirk of enjoyment placed on her face for sucessfully getting under the wrecker's skin. "One of my men 'misplaced' a shooter- rookie Markowski," she growled with an eye roll. "Almost cost us our game. But ole' man Litwak was able to order a replacement shooter off of this Ebay joint."

"Yeah," Vanellope jumped in, getting even more excited at knowing she had yet another supporter. "And I overheard Litwak mentioning looking on there -that Ebay place- to find a _literal_ steering wheel after his cuckoo Nana crashed into a tree... why _wouldn't_ a place like Ebay have things like gaming steering wheels, too?"

Felix couldn't help but soft, amazed chuckle as Calhoun reached over to noogie the child's head gently. "You really _have_ thought out everything for your little plan there, didn't ya, kiddo?" The woman herself smiled at her.

Vanellope laughed and darted away from her head scrubbing. "Yup! I really have- of course, there may be some unexcepted kinks in the plan along the way -like, I don't exactly how we are going to find this Ebay place in the Internet, or how we'll pay for the steering wheel, or stuff like that- but I'm sure Ralph and I can figure it out all along the-"

"No, no, no, no..." Ralph growled out, not believing what he was hearing. "There _is_ no 'unexcepted kinks', no 'Ralph and I will figure it out', no _going into the Internet place_ at all!"

Before Vanellope could jump in and refute any further, Ralph turned to look at the child straight into her eyes to get some sense into her.

"Vanellope, listen to me," the wrecker demanded. "We're _not_ going into this Internet place! It sounds way too dangerous- and there's no guarantee that we'll be safe there or get back here safely." He shook his head firmly. "We're not going."

At his words, the child eyed him dismissively...until she saw the deadly serious, stubborn look in his wide eyes.

"Yes, we _are_ ," she told him simply, the same strong, stubborn look in her own eyes. "We _have_ to, Ralph! It's the only way I can think of to save _Sugar Rush_...to save my friends." Leaning to be as close as she could to his face, Vanellope made her eyes as wide and scared as all possible. "...To save _me_..."

But Ralph wasn't falling for her puppy-dog eyes this time, she found out as he gently pushed her out of his face and back into her seat.

"Vanellope, no," he repeated, his voice even stronger in determination than before. "It's not happening- and no matter what you say, I'm staying here in the safety of the arcade."

Vanellope narrowed her eyes at him and huffed, irritated by his denial...until she got an idea, a fib that she _knew_ he'd never allow to happen.

"Fine," she calmly told Ralph, eyeing him. "You can just stay here like a selfish diaper baby and _I'll_ go get the replacement steering wheel. All on my own," she lied.

Ralph groaned and stared up at the ceiling in annoyance. Like he was going to let _that_ happen.

"No, kid. You're not getting what I'm saying," he firmly told her as he looked back down at her. "I'm not going into the Internet- and neither are _you_."

Vanellope gave him a double take, her eyes growing in anger. That was not exactly what she had planned on him saying. " _What_?! Why not?!"

"Vanellope, I told you- there are way too many dangers that could be lurking in this Internet place- ones that we've never seen or dealt with before," he told her, his voice slightly softer than before. "You could get hurt, or worse, or-"

Across from him, Calhoun snorted loudly at his words. "Yeah, right, Wreck-It...Like you'd ever let anything happen to Vanellope."

"That _is_ a good point," Felix agreed with his wife, thinking over her words. "If you go with her to this Ebay place, Ralph, she'd be way more protected than she would be if she just went alone..."

"Hey- who's side are you guys on?!" Ralph belowed at them, causing them all to jump slightly in their seats. "I've already decided that Vanellope and I are not going- and that's final. Back me up on this, would ya?"

"I'm not backing you up because you have _nothing_ to back up!" Calhoun hissed loudly, standing up suddenly and banging a closed fist onto the table to grab even more attention.

"Vanellope actually came up with a plan to save her skin- way more than you're offering. What's _your_ plan to save her game, uh?" the war woman asked Ralph with narrowed eyes. "Just to sit back and watch _Sugar Rush_ permanently get unplugged while the rest of us might get infected with some malware that'll cause _all of_ _us_ to possibly get unplugged, too?"

Before Ralph could argue with her, Calhoun rushed on and pointed out something that angered Ralph straight to his code.

"Why can't you just suck it up, stop being afraid for once, and go get that steering wheel?! We're wasting precious time argue-"

"Wait- did you really say I'm _afraid_?" Ralph hissed out defensively back at her, his glare the strongest it had been all night as he stood up to match her, unintentionally pushing the table closer towards Calhoun and Felix.

"'Cause I'm not. I'm one of the _strongest_ characters in this arcade," he growled out, balling up his huge fingers into massive fist as if to subconsciously prove his point. "I'm not 'afraid' of anything!"

Climbing onto the table, Vanellope jumped in front of him. "Help me get that steering wheel then, Ralph," she told him desperately as she grabbed onto his arm.

"I know there may be risk and stuff, and Ebay may not even have that steering wheel in stock...but-but, Ralph," her eyes now sincerely pleading with him- not intimidated in the slightest by his towering height and glare. "Please...we've got to at least _try_."

She clung onto his arm, knowing that behind Ralph's rough, strong, stubborn demeanor, there was her gentle, soft Stink Brain, ready to support her. Help her. _Save_ her, as he did so many years ago.

"It might be our only chance, Stink Brain," she whispered out, laying her head down on Ralph's tensed up arm, gulping as she did.

Gulping himself, Ralph closed his eyes tightly, not daring to look down at her.

Seeing her like this -in this much worry and unknown- pained him to his core... but he knew there was no way he was going to budge.

 _If anything happens to Vanellope..._

He sighed defeatedly as he flopped back down on the booth, silence hanging in the thick air again as he effortlessly scooted the table back into place. He looked tired and miserable as three pairs of eyes stared at him, desperately waiting for him to say yes.

But the wrecker just shook his head instead, then slid out of the booth and wordlessly reached over to gently pick up Vanellope by her hood. Placing her own his shoulder, Ralph silently nodded at Calhoun and Felix.

And just when his three friends felt their hopes soar, they came crashing down to the ground and shattered at the wrecker's next few miserable words as he walked out of the root beer game with his kid safely on his shoulder.

"Let's go get some well-deserved sleep in _Fix-It Felix Jr.,_ kid."


	5. Chapter 4: Stronger

**Chapter 4: Stron** **ger**

 _-0-0-0-0-_ _0-0-_

Once inside his little shack, Ralph began to dig through the bottom of his hall closet, trying to find some sort of sheet to put on the couch for Vanellope to sleep on. He tossed random, non-useful items over his shoulder, not caring one bit as they sailed through the air and landed who knows where.

As he dug through a wore out box of old blankets, Ralph's mind suddenly and involuntarily filled with the walk from _Tapper's_ to his game- one that was a quiet, awkward one for him and Vanellope, to say the least.

The wrecker, for his part, had panicked internally as he walked from _Tapper's_ to _Fix-It Felix Jr._ because he assumed that Vanellope was mad at him- beyond mad at him, actually, which wasn't a rarity in itself. But what had freaked Ralph out the most was that Vanellope had _never_ been so mad that she didn't playfully or even seriously hit him, or yell or pout at him for more than a few minutes before forgiving him for his errors and returning her happy, normal self.

In fact, Ralph had _never_ seen Vanellope this quiet- so quiet that she couldn't even say _one word_ to him...and it was growingly scarring him more and more as he now stood in his home and dug frantically around to find a blanket for the child.

On Vanellope's side of the walk to Ralph's game, she couldn't even _look_ down at him as she perched upon his shoulder, still as stone as they made their way from one 8-bit game to the next for the night. She had just stared straight ahead the whole walk home, her ponytail being the only thing of her moving as it waved slightly at Ralph's pace.

In her mind, she knew Ralph wasn't going to change his mind- he was _not_ going to go into the Internet...and because of that sad fact, now neither was _she_.

Of course, Vanellope had been right- she had the brains and Ralph had the strength needed to go into the Internet...something that the little girl was heavily counting on that in order to get that replacement steering wheel.

But now...without Ralph's help, Vanellope knew it was pointless in trying to get the steering wheel by solely relying on herself and her intelligent- there'd be _no way_ she could ever get replacement steering wheel on her own.

She knew, too, it was pointless trying to get Ralph to change his mind- he had seriously meant what he said. He was _not_ going into the Internet, no 'if's, 'and's or 'but's about it. And no matter how much she'd plead, beg, or reasoned with him, Vanellope knew that Ralph wasn't budging on his stand.

Ralph nor Vanellope were going into the Internet or getting that steering wheel, thus saving the candy game- and there was nothing, Vanellope knew, that she could do to change that.

As she now stood by the doorway, watching Ralph now dig for an extra pillow for their impromptu sleepover, Vanellope realized that she wasn't extactly angry at Ralph. Or upset, or even disappointed in his decision.

The child now felt a feeling she had never really had before- hopeless. Absolutely, miserably hopeless...

 _"Ah-ha_! Here we go," Ralph suddenly exclaimed as he finally found an old, unused pillow that would surffice. "This'll do for ya to sleep on."

As he silently pushed the blanket corners down into the couch cushions and placed a huge pillow at the head of the couch, the wrecker eyed over at Vanellope, who hadn't moved from the doorway since they had gotten to his shack...and he could tell solely be her face that there was no way she was going to be able to fall asleep tonight.

Ralph straightened up and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "Or, well, maybe, um...maybe we can just stay up tonight instead," he told her with a look of hope. "If you want to."

Although he was exhausted from the evening's hectic events, Ralph figured it'd be best if he'd stayed up with her through the night, anyway.

They could both joke and play board games and laugh, get her mind off the worrying thoughts plaguing her... as he often helped her to do when she'd stay over at his place when _Sugar Rush_ got a little too crowded or demanding for the little girl...

The wrecker quickly shook his head free at the depressing thought of the girl's candy game. _If I stay up, it_ _can prevent her from sneaking off and trying to go into the Internet alone, anyways,_ he forced himself to replace his thoughts with protective reasoning.

When Vanellope didn't answer and continued to stare numbly into space, Ralph forced his mouth into a positive smile.

"Tonight's going to be fun!" He told her as optimistically as he could as waved her over to him to explain his plans for the night. As she slowly walked over to him, Ralph forced his smile to widen. "It'll be _just_ like any other sleepover we've ever had! We can watch movies and have popcorn fights, and-and make jokes about Sour Bill-"

He stopped abruptly as Vanellope's face got that much darker at the accidentally ill-timed mention of her assistant in her game...

Feeling that much more terrible, Ralph jumped up and raced to a small cabinet by his tiny box tv.

"Let's play a board game, instead!" he chirped as he quickly pulled out various games. "I've got the usual- _Uno_ , _Battleships_ \- heck, I'll even play _Monopoly_ with ya- _and_ let you win!" He joked, knowing how often the little girl mocked his lie about 'allowing' her to win- each and every game they'd play.

When Vanellope didn't answer and just melted to sit down in front of his couch silently, Ralph gulped, dumping all his board and card games back into the cabinet. And before he could stop himself, the wrecker raced over to his living room window to blurt out the next game idea that came to his mind- something that would under normal circumstances made Vanellope cheer.

"No- I've got it! Let's play 'Who can annoy Gene the most'!" Ralph smiled as he peeked out the window, to see if Gene's light was on in his apartment in the NiceLander's building. "That one _never_ gets old, right?!" he laughed, knowing that such a childish game was one of Vanellope's all-time favorites when she'd spend the night in his game.

When he saw the light in the high apartment was on, Ralph excitedly looked over at Vanellope to see what she thought of the perfect idea of how to spend their evening...only to see that she wasn't smiling in the slightest.

Or laughing. She wasn't even sporting a mischievous smirk, as she _always_ did when she thought of teasing the mutually annoying NiceLander.

No, to Ralph's complete distress, Vanellope was just sitting there on his floor in front of his couch, her arms wrapped tightly around her legs...

And tears, actual, real _tears_ , were starting to clearly leak from the child's squinted eyes.

She sniffed miserably, and then quickly wiped the tears away with the sleeve of her hoodie, trying to make them disappear from view altogether. As she did, though, a tiny glitch ran through her body, the first one she'd had in a while- but it only caused her attempts to steady her anxiously quivering bottom lip to cave and for her lips to shake more.

It was clear that her tiny chest ached in worry and pain - and that despite Ralph's best effects to distract her, to make her smile and forget all her worry, all her guilt, all the fear and uncertainty over the fate of her game was steadily growing to be too much for the young girl...and she couldn't possibly keep it all in, keep it all together any longer despite being the strong kid that she was.

As Ralph at her blankly for a split second in time, he realized that the last time he had seen her cry -a gut-wrenching, terrifyingly painful cry like this...was when he had destroyed her precious kart all those years ago.

It had killed him then to watch and hear her cry because of him doing what he thought was right...and it killed him even more now.

Upon realizing Ralph was watching her, Vanellope quickly wiped her eyes that much harder, trying to remove all her tears and the tear streaks they were starting to leave. But no matter how hard she tried or wished to, Vanellope just couldn't remove or hide the clear worry and sorrow and anguish growing inside her...or from Ralph's worried sight.

At seeing his 'little sister's distraught deamor, Ralph's shoulders slumped in the all-out feeling of failure starting to fill his mind. He rushed over to where Vanellope sat, still silently and hiddenly weeping and after flopping down on the couch seconds later, one of his large hands already hovering protective and uncettaintly over the child's head.

"Hey, it's ok, Fart Feathers," he told her as soothingly as he could, his own chest getting tighter and tighter at the closer inspection of her tears. "Everything's ok, really. Please don't...don't _cry_ , kid-"

At his gentle words, Vanellope whipped her head so hard around to look at him in the eye that her long ponytail nearly whacked herself in the face. Her eyes were cold, dark, and sharp, piercing into Ralph like a knife...and she then snapped the first words she had spoken to her best friend since they had left _Tapper's._

"I'm not _crying_!" She hissed defensively, although her wobbly tone said otherwise. "Presidents don't cry, _GA-DOI!"_

Her sharp words stung Ralph deeply, causing him to wince. As he saw her sniffed and wipe away yet even more tears as she looked miserably away from him, the concern man sighed and placed his chin in one of his hands, trying his hardest to come up with how to delicately answer her.

"Yeah," he finally admitted softly after a moment as he cautiously peered down at her. "But scared little girls do."

Vanellope turned to angrily glare up at him, clearly ready to challenge that statement...before her face melted and then twisted up in defeat. Her large, tearful eyes became wide and expressively deep before quickly turning her whole face away from his sight again, not daring to let him see just how true his words really were.

Her eyes squinted tightly shut, a whole new batch of fresh tears filling them again as she wept quietly into her arm. Her mouth wobbling uncontrollably, the child gasped for breaths into the crook of her arm, letting each tear she had been building up all night long finally free...

Before feeling a gentle, large touch brush against one side of her face.

Vanellope slowly allowed her eyes to blink open. Although all was still very blurry, she saw that the touch was that of Ralph's huge thumb stroking her cheek, it too seeming to desire to wipe away all her unwanted tears.

At his gentle and calming touch, the child couldn't but reach up and wrapped her contrastingly smaller fingers around Ralph's thumb, pulling it closer to press reassuringly against her cheek. Before she knew it, Ralph's huge hand had quickly came to rest against the side of her face by her pulling.

Gulping another knot in his throat down, the gentle giant then cupped the tiny girl's little chin softly and reassuringly with his huge, bulky fingers as he continued to stroke her tear-stained face with his thumb.

Despite her anger and worry, Vanellope found herself nuzzling her face and eyes into his huge, comforting hand like a scared, lost kitten finally finding the comfort it needed. Yet more tears quickly followed by leaking out of her eyes, only this time flowing more freely now that she had someone who cared enough to catch them for her.

In the rare moment of quiet, outright affection -and outright seriousness- between the two, Vanellope closed her eyes and sniffled softly and more frequently into his hand. When she finally turned to look at Ralph in the face, his heart broke at how sad and miserable she really looked.

She stood up slowly and stood right beside Ralph's leg, leaning tiredly up against it for support as she looked up at him sadly. Her grasp on his fingers never lightening, Vanellope then spoke again, her voice trembling.

"Ralph...wh-what if the anti-virus system is safe for our games, but... _Sugar Rush_ still gets permanently unplugged?" She asked worriedly, pulling Ralph's hand that much closer to her cheek. " _Then_ what'll we do?

"A-and where will all of us from _Sugar Rush_ live?" the child continued, her eyes fearful and wide as they cut into Ralph's. "There's _so_ many of us racers- not even including all the non-playable candy fans! There's _no other_ game that can takes us _all_ in, permanently, nonetheless! We'll all end up separated, and-and then-"

Vanellope paused to catch her breath, now a steady stream of fearful tears coming from her eyes as Ralph patiently and wordlessly began to rub her cheek again.

"Ralph...Wh-what if I end up _homeless_ again?" She wondered out loud, her lips quivering again, her chest heaving in pain and panic. "Wh-what if... because I'm not the president anymore, all of the _Sugar Rush_ characters... _hate_ me again because they will blame me for our game getting unplugged?"

As the little girl broke into another heavy sob, Ralph finally couldn't take it anymore.

"Hey, woah, woah, woah," he told her softly, using his other hand to gently pick up the child and place her on his knee. "C'mon, Vanellope. It'll be ok! None of that will ever happen!"

His words, however, didn't prove to comforting as he wanted them to. Vanellop quickly jumping off his knee and stood in front of where he sat, anger strong in her eyes as she glitched a little stronger than before.

"Oh, yeah- well, what if it _does_ happen, huh?" she hissed. "What if not only _Sugar Rush_ gets unplugged, but all the other games here does, too? What am I supposed to do then- what are _we all_ supposed to do then?"

Still steaming in anger, Vanellope glared at Ralph harshly- and began blaming him for everything plaguing her.

"And you know what? The fact _Sugar Rush_ might get unplugged is partially YOUR fault, too!" she screamed loudly at him. "If _you_ weren't such a wimp and a selfish jerk, we could go into the Internet and get that replacement steering wheel! But _no,"_ she mocked out before spitting more words at him, "you don't even _care_ enough about me to even _try_ and save my game AND the arcade!"

Ralph, all too in shock to answer her, just sat numbly and stared at her, feeling the cut her words made on him.

 _How could she ever think that? _his mind groped for an answer _. Does she really not see how much I do care about her?_ _The very reason why we can't go into the Internet is because I care about her!_

After a moment of tense silence, Vanellope wiped her eyes before allowing her anger to calm down. She shook her head, her face twisting up with tears again as she sighed and glitch miserably.

Swallowing sharply, Vanellope surprisingly and quickly then resorted to returning to the comfort of being in Ralph's lap, unable to stay mad at him for long -even if she felt it was valid.

Although he was still hurt by her words, Ralph still let the kid crawl into his lap, pulling her closer to him as she did. He knew it was her way of apologizing for her outburst of anger and hurtful words at him- which he knew _she_ knew weren't true.

After a moment past of laying her cheek up against his overalls, the embarrassed child finally admitted the truth about the true source of her anger.

"Ralph, I'm...I'm scared," she sniffled out, wiping off her running nose on her sleeve. She looked down into her lap as if she were at truly ashamed to actually admit those words out loud.

Closing his eyes, Ralph was silent for a moment. He rubbed a huge hand over the girl's hair as he then looked at her downcasted face.

Unable to hold it all in himself anymore, he told her the truth. "I know, kid...I...I am, too."

Despite her worry, this earned a soft mocking snort from the child in his lap, wiping her cheek once more.

"I thought you said you weren't afraid of _anything_ , Stink Brain," she mocked before looking up at him straight in the eye, smirking slightly.

But Ralph didn't return such a smirk. Instead, he cocked his head down at her slightly before sighing and looking away from her eyes altogether.

"Yeah, that's true, I guess. I'm _not_ scared anything," he answered softly. "I'm...I'm _petrified_. Of...of one thing and one thing only."

At his words, Vanellope blinked up at him in amazement. Her kind, soft-hearted Stink Brain...even her big, strong Ralph, always so protective and daring... was actually petrified of something?

"What- what are you scared of, Ralph?" She pushed slightly, snuggling closer to him in order to offer him some sort of comfort somehow. "I know the anti-virus is scary," she murmured out softly, thinking it was the reason for his fear. "And it could effect _Fix-It Felix Jr,_ too-"

"No," Ralph mumbled out, still staring blankly ahead. "It's not that. In any way, actually."

"What _is_ it then, Stink Brain?" Vanellope asked again, sitting up straighter so she could see into his face, only to see he wasn't and wouldn't look at her as he finally broke.

"It's...of...I'm petrified of...of losing _you_ , Vanellope," he whispered so softly she could bearly hear him, his heart clearly in his throat.

The child gasped quietly as eyed up at him dumbfoundedly. A sharp pain overtook her as he finally turned his head to look at her...with actual tears in his eyes.

"Kid," he gulped out, "If...If anything ever happens...If I _let_ anything ever happen to you," he stamped out, "if you weren't completely protected, and-and something happens to you...I...I couldn't _live_ with myself."

Vanellope couldn't help but hear the wobble in his voice as he stumbled out his words truthfully, and she noticed that his eyes were now avoiding looking at her at all cost.

Ralph subconsciously pulled her that much closer to him, as somehow something right then and there were threatening to take his Vanellope away from him. He ran a hand over her hair, seeking to somehow soothe himself by doing so.

"If I lost you, at my own fault...," he added slowly, suddenly finding himself balling up his fingers into tight, even angry fists, "like I was stupid enough to almost let happen all those years ago...I couldn't...I couldn't bear to handle that." He let out a wobbling sigh as let his fists fell apart in defeat, shaking his head.

Why he was finally admitting all this to the child now, he didn't really know. He'd _never_ really been the mushy, emotional type- at least, not where others could see. But hiding his mushy side was especially true when it came to being around Vanellope...since she really wasn't one to express deep emotion, either.

Maybe it was all the turmoil Ralph was feeling, all the worry and pain finally exposing itself and pushing out his true feelings. It showed him weak, how weak he really _was_ , he knew...but he didn't care about being or even pretending to strong anymore.

All that mattered now was keeping his Vanellope, his best friend and little sister, safely with him by her side.

He was somehow brave enough -strong enough- to sneak a look back down at Vanellope, to see she was suddenly sitting up straighter, staring back up at him with eyes bigger than Ralph had ever seen before.

"I-I need you, kid...I can't lose you," Ralph truthfully told her, his face twisting up slightly with concern. "If I ever did..." He painfully looked away, unable -unwilling- to finish the train of thought.

Vanellope peered into his face, her aching heart beating faster and faster as Ralph's words sunk into it. As she looked at him, she saw that he looked liked he was about to fall apart at just the _thought_ of losing her- something she thought no one would never care enough about her to feel.

"You...you really mean all that, Stink Brain?" she whispering wobbly, her eyes near pleading with him to confirm words she'd never thought would be spoken about her, ever be true to someone else about her.

Ralph repeatedly blinked at her for a second, pushing back any tears that dared to leak out. He then suddenly pulled her into a firm yet gently hug, more for his sake than for her's.

"Of course, kid," he told her as he nuzzled her soft hair against his cheek. "It's _always_ been true, since we met all those years ago. You're...you're kinda my everything, kiddo."

In his strong, loving arms, Vanellope gasped a little for breath before pushing her eyes into Ralph's overall again...only this time to quietly cry a very different set of tears. She snuggled that much closer to him, never feeling more loved by anyone as she did then...before Ralph gently pulled her back again to looked her in the face, his face still worry-filled.

"That's why we just can't go into the Internet place, kid," he told desperately, his voice pleading with her to understand. "There're things in there- I _know_ there are- that I might not be able to protect you from, things...things possibly even stronger than any Cy-Bugs, or Turbo, even," he words stumbled out. "Things that I'm _not_ strong enough to fight against. Things could separate us... Things that could make me _lose_ you... forever..."

At his explanation, Vanellope tucked her chin down in even more shame for yelling at him earlier.

She was wrong to blame Ralph for everything- she knew that the second the words left her mouth...But now that she knew just _why_ Ralph was choosing not to go get the steering wheel -not because he _didn't_ care about her, but because he cared _so much_ about her- it made her accusation against him that much more untrue and hurtful.

An urge to hug him tightly came over Vanellope suddenly, causing her jumped up to wrap her tiny arms around his neck.

Although he was taken aback by the gesture, Ralph allowed her to hug him lovingly.

"If we just wait here, _safely_ in the arcade," he added softly into her ear, his voice slightly hopeful that she understood, " _safely_ in _my game,_ together...maybe, _maybe_ everything will turn out ok."

"But what if it _isn't_ ok, Stink Brain?" Vanelllope couldn't help but whisper as she laid her cheek on his shoulder, sniffling softly again. "What if _Sugar Rush_ gets unplugged and I have nowhere to live?"

"Oh, come on," Ralph suddenly chuckled gently. "You _really_ think I'd let you be homeless, Fart Feathers?"

He pulled her back gently to sit in his huge hands to look her in the eye. "You know I've always got a place for you to stay here in _Fix-It Felix Jr_ , right?" He told her warmly as his face lit up. "In fact... you could just _live_ here! With me in _my_ game!"

A smile -a genuine smile, that is- surfaced on his face, his eyes suddenly bright and happy at the idea... before his smile faulted slightly to be replaced by a playful smirk.

"Sure, I mean, if you're here all day, _every day_ , you and I will probably get sick of each other sometimes," he chuckled out, "and yeah, one of us might end up killing the other in their sleep out of lack of space in this tiny shack of mine," he paused to roll his eyes as he joked, "but at least we'd be together then, right?"

He paused to affectionately tuck a few of Vanellope's wispy bangs off her face and behind her ear, somehow not noticing the uncertainty in her face.

Blinded by his own mental ecstasy, Ralph's face lit up at another idea, this time so strong it moved him to quickly set Vanellope beside him on the couch and for him to jump up in excitement.

"Oh, wait! I know- We can have Felix build an extra bedroom for you here in my shack!" He smiled widely and gestured around him in his home before gasping at another brilliant plan hit him. "And, ho oh, we can even reprogram your code to be in _Fix-It Felix Jr,_ and you can be a character here in _this_ game, kid, just like we did with Q*Bert and the gang!"

He placed his hands on his hips, smiling deliriously at his brilliance...not even noticing the ever-growing unhappiness on Vanellope's face.

"Ralph, listen..." she began, although knowing her words were falling on deaf ears.

"Oh, and in my genius brain," Ralph smirked again as he narrowed his eyes mischievous, "I even thought of the _perfect_ name for you in the game! And it _iiisss_...Drumroll please...," he excitedly pretended to drum the air with his two giant index fingers to leave Vanellope in suspense...only she wasn't.

"... _Vandalize-It_ _Vanellope_!" Ralph suddenly exclaimed out, a happy, proud smile on his face as he didn't even wait to hear what she thought of her new name. "Isn't that an _awesome_ name for ya, kid?! It's perfect! It's going to _be_ perfect!"

Vanellope felt her shoulder slump, wanting to interrupt him again but now didn't have the heart to as Ralph excitedly began pacing the floor as he continued to plan.

" _I'll_ wreck the building while _you_ glitch around and vandalize it- you might even get to write some graffiti all over _Gene's_ face, haha!" He couldn't help but laugh out loud heartily at the mental scene of the NiceLander's startled and spray painted face.

"Then Felix'll come and fix it all- oh, how'd the players _love_ us! An-and," he continued to rush out enthusiastically, his imagination on a fierce roll, "each morning we can get up earlier and go get donuts before work, and _after_ work, we can stay up late, and joke about Gene every night and just always be together! It would be awesome..."

He pulled his head out of the clouds to smile at his Vanellope...to see she wasn't smiling back in the slightest. " _Wouldn't_ it, kid?"

In misery Vanellope looked up at him, pain again filling her eyes and she sat still on the couch.

"I don't _want_ to live here in _Fix-It Felix Jr.,_ Ralphie," she finally told him, her voice breaking as she broke his planning bubble gently. "This is not my home and it never will be...Because it's not _Sugar Rush_. And-and I don't _want_ to reprogram my code to live here," she continued sadly, "I-I just want to live in _Sugar Rush_. I don't _want_ to be Vandalize-It Vanellope...I-I want to be President Vanellope von Schweetz of...of _Sugar Rush."_

Forcing herself not to break out into another sob, Vanellope got off the couch to walk over to were Ralph stood. Leaning tiredly against his huge leg again, the child felt a soft glitch run through her body, a weak one as Ralph bent down to her level.

" _Racing_ is what is in my code, Ralph," she told him in tears. "That's what I was _made_ to do. Even if we reprogrammed my code, we couldn't get rid of my want, my _need_ to race."

Gulping in guilt, Ralph gently picked her up, nuzzling her head gently with his round nose. Although hurt she didn't want to live with him, he knew deep down she was right... Vanellope wasn't made for his game the way she perfectly made for _Sugar Rush_. And no matter how hard he selfishly could try, Ralph could never make his game -his shack- ever completely feel like home to her.

"And now," Vanellope continued tearfully as Ralph rubbed her back consolingly with one large finger, "..now that I _finally_ get to race, after years of not being allowed to...I-I can't _believe_ it's all going to be taken away from me, just after a few short years." She painfully sat up in his arms to look at him, her heart clearly breaking.

"But worse of all...if-if the arcade _itself_ ends up shutting down because of the anti-virus system...," she choked out, "I won't get to be with _you_ anymore...we will both...both end-end up..."

Ralph gently and quickly put a finger over her mouth, stopping her from finishing the dreaded, horrifying sentence. He sighed and ran one of his hands through his hair as he held her securely in his other hand, his earlier jovial attitude now completely busted.

Words failed Ralph to express his worry, eerily the same as hers now- because even if Vanellope _did_ want to live in his game, it wouldn't matter if the _entire_ _arcade_ did end up getting a wide-spread virus and all the games end up getting unplugged...leading the arcade itself to become powered off and shut down forever...

And no electricity meant certain death for each and every single character in the arcade... including Ralph himself and his Vanellope...

And not to mention the other closest characters to the two of them- Felix and Calhoun would be lost, too.

All Ralph's buddies at Bad-Anon, all of Vanellope's fellow racers, even hanging out in the games of _Tapper's_ or _Pac-Man_ or even _Hero's Duty-_ everything and everyone in the arcade will be gone completely and permanently, all of the empty consoles being dumped out in the pasture like Litwak's Nana.

And there'd be nothing Ralph or anyone else in the arcade could do to stop it all from happening, even if all of the arcade _did_ know it was coming.

The whole idea was depressing to both Stink Brain and his Fart Feathers, both silent as they trying manage the idea of not existing anymore...and even worse, being without each other.

"Vanellope, listen," Ralph finally said, his last attempt to settle her fears, to be strong for her. "If...when _Sugar Rush_ gets unplugged forever...just know that I'll never leave or abandon you, or let you get mistreated again," he promised her. "And even if the whole arcade itself shuts down, too... I-I promise I'll make sure the two of us are together when it does."

He stared deeply into her eyes, pleading with him to believe him with everything piece of her code...although there was no need to worry she wouldn't.

At his kind, loving words, Vanellope gulped down tears as she nodded solemnly.

"You know why?" Ralph suddenly then asked her, nudging her cheek gently with one of his knuckles as he smiled sadly and weakly at her. "Because I'm your Stink Brain, remember? Your hero, right?"

Vanellope blushed and chuckled softly, nodding softly at him.

"And I'm _your_ Fart Feathers, remember?" she joked out, earning a shared chuckled with Ralph as she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning her forehead up against his. " _Your_ hero, right?"

"Exactly, kid," he sadly smiled at her. With their foreheads still touching and in a further rare moment of unusually gentle affection, the two rubbed noses gently.

"We can get through this- _together,_ Little Sister," Ralph then promised her, staring into her deep, beautiful hazel eyes with his rich chocolate ones. "No matter _what_ happens, no force on earth could _ever_ separate us."

As she gave solemn, strong nod back, it was clear- both of best friends had already accepted their fate together, whatever it made be, and both were willing to be strong for the other.

Shifting slightly in Ralph's arm, Vanellope then laid her head on his shoulder, truly content for the first all night.

Even without that steering wheel...even if she couldn't save her game...even if the whole arcade was lost, she knew she was safe in Ralph's arms.

And that gave her hope.

Ralph laid his head on top of hers as he stood back up, he, too, truly happy and content. After holding her gently in silence for a few minutes, he finally wiped a few last stray tears away and chuckled miserably.

"C'mon, kid," he told her, patting her back one last time. "I'm exhausted- and I know you must be, too. Let's try and get some sleep- I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be crazy."

Ralph gently placed Vanellope back on the ground as he made his way over to the couch to finish making it extra comfortable from the child.

"Wait..," Vanellope voiced out suddenly, causing Ralph to pause and look at her again.

"Um...I never got a chance to thank you for letting me sleep in your game for the night... so, thanks, Stink Brain." She blushed softly, before sharing a warm grin with Ralph.

"But...I don't want to sleep inside tonight," she added, her eyes wide again as she fiddled with her thumbs. As Ralph eyed her curiously and in confusion, she finally asked what she was thinking. "So...can, um, can I sleep _outside_ tonight? Like...by your old stump?"

 _-0-0-0-0-0-_ _0-_

"So...what'cha think of _this_ kind of bed, kid?" Ralph asked Vanellope as he gentely pushed another tiny group of bricks closer to her tiny body.

"It's weirdly kinda comfortable- for a brick bed, I guess," Vanellope observed as she snuggled into her new bed of dusty red and brown bricks.

Beside her, Ralph chuckled softly and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, try sleeping this way for about _30 years_ and get back to me on how 'comfortable' it stays, kid."

Vanellope chuckled tiredly and wiggled deeper into her bed for the night, sighing slightly in contentment- leading to Ralph smile affectionately down at her.

After she had asked to sleep outside by his stump, Ralph was unsurprisingly shocked. Sure, he had tolerated such sleeping conditions for so long he had become immune to the sharp brick points and scratches he'd on occasion gained from them. But for someone to randomly _ask_ to sleep that way was quite unusual.

When he agreed that Vanellope could sleep outside, he couldn't help but ask why.

"Well...I can kinda see the tip-top of _Sugar Rush_ through the game screen from your stump, I noticed the other day," she had sheepishly told him as they gathered blankets and headed out Ralph's door into the NiceLand landscape.

"Plus," she had added, "I want to see the NiceLand stars tonight...they aren't made of sugar like my game's stars are...were," she had correct herself sadly at the remembrance of her game's fate.

In order to lighten the mood again, Ralph quickly told her _he'd_ camp out by his old stump with her, earning an appreciative smile from Vanellope.

"And," he had added excitedly as he pushed bricks mightly away to make two empty spots by his stump, "you might even get to see a _shooting_ star here in _Fix-It Felix Jr_! They're pretty rare to happen- but hey, we'll be outside, anyways. Might as well keep our eyes peeled for one, right?"

In excitement, the two friends had quickly hundred down in their spots, side by side, and now, just a few minutes later, Ralph was gently covering up a slowly winding down Vanellope with a few more bricks, then did the same with himself.

The two then did their best to eagerly wait -near pleading- for the sky to shoot off one of it's old, worn out programmed 8-bit stars, having it fall through the sky in bright streaking colors. After a few minutes, however, both friends lost their zeal and patience waiting for the stars to fall, and except for an occasional glance upwards, Ralph and Vanellope gave up all hope for childishly making a wish on a star.

Resting his head up against the side of his big tree stump, Ralph couldn't help but rub his forehead tiredly. He turned to eye his friend to see that she was snuggled and nestled in her spot, surrounded by bricks.

She was now weakly trying to stretch her neck to see the tip-top her game through the massive gaming screen, one that exposed the inside the game of _Fix-It Felix Jr._ to the outside world into the arcade. Paining her to see the mostly pink and green wording on her game's cabinet now dull and bland and not filled any light, Vanellope laid her head back down against the stump and sighed.

Feeling every ounce of her exhaustion and sadness, Vanellope rubbed her eyes tiredly and in a cute, childish way that made Ralph smile every time he saw it- and often made him feel that much more tired himself.

Yawning, Ralph closed his eyes- before a single thought began bugging him, one unresolved issue bouncing around actively in his mind, refusing to let him rest until it was answered.

"Hey kid...," Ralph was suddenly moved to begin, eyeing the child again, "if you don't want to live here with me in my game...what game _do_ you want to live in? If need be, of course."

The child yawned loudly, then smacked her lips. "I dunno," she answered, blinking repeatedly as she tried her hardest to stay awake. "I guess another racing game or somethin' like that, maybe. Why?"

Scrunching his eyebrows together, Ralph thought for a moment before answering her. He shifted to look momentary upwards towards the starry 8-bit sky above them, possibly deep down inside still hoping to see a shooting star.

"Oh, just wondering," he answered her nonchalantly before realizing something. "There's not many other racing games in the arcade for you to stay in really, ya know, kid...," Ralph pointed out to her as his placed an arm behind his head.

He paused to chuckle softly as a funny memory overtook him. "I mean, yeah, there's _Mario Kart.._.But I know you and Luigi don't exactly 'get along' after you stole his kart to go out for a joy ride... and then crashed it."

When Vanellope stayed silent, not even a small chuckle escaping her lips, Ralph just assumed the child beside him was thinking over the matter- perhaps even, to his delight, reconsidering not wanting to live with him in his game. So, instead of pushing her to answer, the wrecker just continued to think out loud.

"I guess we shouldn't worry too much about all that right now," he added, "'cause who _knows_ what'll happen next, eh, kid? I mean, for all we know, _Sugar Rush_ will end up fixing itself or something crazy like that, and the anti-virus system won't end up being installed, you know?"

When he still got no answer from the little girl beside him, Ralph stopped assuming and looked over at Vanellope...to see she was already sound asleep, warmly blanketed by many bricks that somehow didn't seem to poke or scratch or bother her. She was on her side and in a tiny little ball of raven black hair, mint green sweater, and red bricks.

Ralph couldn't help but smiled fondly at her, unable to suppress the urge to reach over and gently stroking the child's hair for a moment.

 _Too bad she doesn't want live here- she fits right in,_ Ralph had the off-hand thought with another fond, quiet chuckle. _Plus... 'Vandalize-It Vanellope' sounded_ so _fitting..._

Landing his head back down and closing his eyes briefly, Ralph pushed all his previous thoughts away, though.

He just wanted Vanellope to be happy- and if living in his game permanently wasn't going to accomplish that, then he wouldn't push the matter on her any further.

 _Not that any of it matters, anyway...We all may not be here much longe_ r, Ralph shocked himself by thinking so negatively and cuttingly.

But he couldn't deny the still present heaviness in the air, in his heart- and his mind now ran amock that much more now that Vanellope was sound asleep. And now that the floodgates of his imagination was open and rushing out, Ralph knew that there'd be no way he'd be able to fall asleep at his worrying thoughts.

Because even if Vanellope felt better about the whole thing, it didn't mean the fear and imminent danger involving her was slowing down in its approach.

 _What is going to happen to Vanellope? _Ralph wondered honestly and worryingly. _And to the other characters in Sugar Rush -_ _if, er, when it gets unplugged forever?_

 _And-and what if Calhoun is right about the anti-virus system- what if it overtakes the arcade and damages our games, causing us all to get unplugged?_

"No!...no..."

Ralph opened his eyes suddenly, not even realizing he had shut them again, at a scared voice sounding out, and in alarm, he looked frantically over at Vanellope.

Her little face was contorted into a tight squish, clearly having a nightmare as she started glitching softly, now whimpering. She mewed out various names in worry...although 'Ralph' itself was the one she whispered out the most.

Sighing in knowing she was somewhat ok for now, Ralph closed his eyes tightly and thought of a way worse nightmare of his own as he reached over to gently stroke Vanellope's hair again to comfort her as she slept.

 _What_ _i_ _f something does happen to the arcade itself...and I get separated from her...and..and we._..

Ralph forced his eyes open and shook his head hard. _No, I can't, I won't let that happen! _He sighed, the unknown still plaguing him. _If only I could make sure nothing ever happens to us at all..._

Forcing his eyes off a now calmer Vanellope, Ralph found that he couldn't possibly lay still any longer. As quietly and as undisturbingly to Vanellope as he could, he wiggled out of his brick bed.

Standing up in his spot, he eyed the NiceLander's building...and began slowly moving his legs towards it. He _had_ to clear his mind of these disturbing thoughts filling it, and walking around the serene NiceLand often did the trick in soothing such times of negative thinking.

As he walked in the mostly dark game, Ralph again peered heavenward at the beautiful, star-filled sky...and despite there being no shooting stars he could see falling, the wrecker found himself wishing.

"I wish none of this has happened, and it'd all _just go away_ ," he murmured out loud quietly, getting closer and closer to the NiceLand building as he picked up his pace. "And that _Sugar Rush_ was safe...and that Vanellope was safe, and that she could completely control her glitching again..And I wish that there could be a new steering wheel for Taffyta's kart..."

Before he knew how far he had walked, Ralph suddenly stood by the NiceLander's building, it's tallness not in the slightest intimidating to a man like Ralph.

Maybe it was because he routinely climbed it so many times it became a habit, or maybe it was merely because he had run out of walking room...whatever the case, Ralph took off climbing up the side of the building, continuing to wish.

"I wish Litwak hadn't turned off _Sugar Rush_ , and that he hadn't seen Vanellope glitch so bad," he murmured as he grasped onto the ledge of where Gene's now dark apartment would be, and grunted as he heaved up past Mary's, then Bob's. "And I wish that Steve hadn't suggested the whole anti-virus thing..."

Again, Ralph was surprised when he grasped onto the very top of the building's ledge and pulled himself up on top. He stood there for a moment before walking across the roof towards the edge closest to the game screen.

Peering outside in the arcade, Ralph stopped wishing and saw _Hero's Duty_ off to the arcade's right-hand side. In pain, he briefly wondered how the poor kids in _Sugar Rush_ kids were holding up in such a scary game...how Felix and Calhoun were holding up themselves, the select few others in the entire arcade who _really_ knew what was going on...

Shaking his head free and stretching his neck a little out further, Ralph then could see almost all of _Dance Dance Revolution_ and the _Wheel of Fortune_ games, too. And of course, in looking to his left, the wrecker saw the unplugged, inactive _Sugar Rush_ \- and felt a whole new wave of depression wash over him at seeing how empty and abandon candy game. Its' game screen was pitch black, no lights or any signs of life filling it at all.

Gulping, Ralph pulled his eyes away from the pitiful looking game, and saw the _Wack-A-Mole_ machines just beyond the other side of _Sugar Rush_. And although he couldn't see them from his game, Ralph knew _Frogger_ and _Pac-Man,_ _Tapper's_ and _Mario_ _Kart_ , _Street Fighter_ and _Burger Time-_ and at least a dozen other games were out there in the arcade, blissfully and completely unaware of what everyone and their games' possible fate really was...and possibly just starting as soon as tomorrow. It then occurred to Ralph that, other than himself and Felix, not even anyone else in _his_ game knew of the impending doom.

The weightiness of his foreknowledge of the events that could happen to all the games and their unknowing classic characters- and the thought that he knew more about what was about to happen the entire arcade than even Mr.Litwak did- was almost enough for Ralph to crack under pressure as he gulped.

It felt like he was betraying them all- all his friends and coworkers, like Tapper's, Peter from _Burger Time,_ or Bowser, Clyde or any of the Bad-Anon members, or Mary, Bob, Dina, or any of the NiceLanders. All his rivalries and annoying fellow arcade characters, like Gene and Sour Bill, and even turd-boy Rancid or Nina Williams from _Street Fighters-_ and all the other characters he knew, whether he'd known for 30-something years or for just a few weeks now...He felt like was letting them all down.

But worse of all, as Ralph stared teary-eyed into the outside world of his beloved arcade, it felt like he was already forcing himself to say goodbye to his beloved little family, one he'd never thought he'd ever get to have.

Ralph's mind filled with Felix, who was still the kindest character Ralph had met the 36 years of his gameplay.

Until just 6 years ago, Felix had just been a distant friend, a helper if need be. But now...it was like he and Ralph had a totally different friendship. He was now like a mutual close brother, as both he and Ralph often reminder each other.

The short handyman was now a strong, loyal and true friend to Ralph, someone Ralph could lean on or rant if needed. Felix was the most passive out of the four close friends, Ralph knew that- yet, Felix was always someone Ralph could always rely on. Felix was someone who consistently patience and gentle-hearted- "the future makings of a great dad", as the wrecker used to joke to a blushing Felix while nodding pointing at eye-rolling Calhoun.

 _Speaking of that devil,_ Ralph thought with an eye-roll of his own as he eyed _Hero's Duty_ again. He thought about how his and Calhoun's 'relationship' was interesting, to say the least- although he admitted he had kinda forced it out of the wrong foot, crashing into her game and wrecking it like he did and all. But as to the rest of the rocky ground of the wrecker's and war-woman's friendship, Ralph adamantly blamed on her.

Calhoun was a woman made to battle in war, whether physical or verbal ones. She was the fiercest character Ralph had ever met, man or woman, that was for sure. She was known by everyone to be strong, stubborn, determined- much like Ralph in a way.

But Ralph knew he was privileged to see the softer, more hidden sides of the woman- like her weakness, slight kindness for her husband, her loyalty, her need to never give up, and even when things got rough or tough, she'd be rough and tough right back- something Ralph, albeit hiddenly, had to admire her for.

She was the, er, most _loud and determined_ in the four's family, Ralph knew- yet, he couldn't think of anyone better to fill that need. And although the two often shared in heated distributes and arguments and butted heads often, Ralph knew Calhoun was there if he ever needed her, like a psycho sister-in-law to him. She always told Ralph what he never wanted, but _needed_ to hear- and told him the truth of the matter, even when other's tried to sugar coat it.

She was a woman of justice, strongest, bravery- weirdly traits, Ralph often mentally thought, that would make Calhoun... a great mother of sorts.

But now...Ralph might not ever get to see the two of them, Felix and Calhoun, his gentle-heart brother and crazy strong sister-in-law...ever get to adopt any kids, as Ralph knew they were desperately wanting to when the opportunity came since he now knew they couldn't have any kids of their own...

Now, Ralph'd never get to be the 'Fun Uncle', he and Vanellope teaching the adopted Fix-It kids to do and say things that they'd know would annoy the living 'boo' out their parents...

Gulping down the now huge knot in his throat down, Ralph unwillingly found his eyes looking far down and back across the NiceLand ground...to see the very faint outline his little sister still curled up in the piles of bricks in the darkness; he could even see her bright, soft glitching from time to time.

Vanellope...where even to _begin_ with how much she meant to Ralph and exactly where she fit in his strange family.

She was the first real friend Ralph ever had, the first member of his family. And now, even 6 years after their chance encounter of meeting, that child was still _by far_ the closest person Ralph was to in his family, and he had the stronger friendship with her, no doubt about it.

Sure, she got on his nerves and angered him- like anyone does in a family. Yet, Ralph knew- Vanellope was the most adorable, most sassy, most charismatic, most stubborn, most bossy, most annoying, most unique, most incredible character he had ever meet in his 36 years of gameplay- and he could help but love and protect her for it.

Ralph knew this candy child wasn't just some random kid to him, wasn't just some little girl. She wasn't just a friend, a little sister, even an innocent little daughter to him.

And it never seemed to stop baffling him that he, in turn, wasn't just some 'grown-up' to Vanellope, just some 'old man'. He wasn't just a friend, a big brother, even a big, crazy-over-protective father to her.

They were both simply just more than all of that for each...they were just simply...

Ralph and Vanellope. Stink Brain and Fart Feathers- the strongest duo, the strongest heroes in all the arcade.

And as Ralph realized he could inevitably lose all of his family, lose all the fond memories they had made, loos all the fun they'd now never get to have...lose all of _Vanellope_...in an instant of time very soon...the tears Ralph had kept bottled up all evening long finally came leaking out.

He thought of his greatest fear, as he had many times that day- and realized that there was nothing he could do to prevent it from happening now.

 _If anything happens to Vanellope-_

" _Yeah, right, Wreck-It,"_ Calhoun's words suddenly filled his mind, replacing his own words of doubt with her words of confidence. " _Like you'd ever let anything happen to Vanellope_."

Those words had angered Ralph for some reason earlier, pushing him that much closer to limits of explosion...but now...like a ton of bricks to the face, it hit him- that Calhoun was right, of course.

Ralph would never let anything happen to his kid, his sister, his hero- come what may, he'd protect her at all cost down until the end.

He hadn't let anything happen to her in the past- and wouldn't dare ever in the future...which is why Vanellope always trusted him through and through.

 _No, I can't -I won't- let that kid down. I will not let anything happen to her...or to my other family and friends_, _for that matter,_ Ralph gulped down determinedly as he then turned back to look outside the screen again... _Or to_ _any_ _of those innocent characters out there._

He focused outside into the arcade, directly on the abandoned _Sugar Rush_ cabinet as he shut everything out to think. _I've got to do something...but what?!_

 _".. it's called...The Internet!"_ Vanellope's excited voice filled his mind, the mental picture of her happy face brightening his despondent, dark thoughts for a moment before her flash-back words made them dark again.

Ralph felt his eyes widen like they had when Vanellope had first told him her plan. Turning his back on the arcade screen and paced forward a few steps towards the back of the tall building, the wrecker became panicked.

There _had_ to be another way...anything but going into the dark-sounding, scary, threatening Internet.

"We...we _can't_!" Ralph exclaimed to reconfirm his earlier feelings. "We can't go into the Internet!"

 _"We have to, Ralph!"_ Vanellope told him desperately in his mind again. " _It's the only way I can think of to save Sugar Rush...to save my friends...to save me..."_

And suddenly Vanellope's huge, sad puppy-dog eyes came flooding back into Ralph's mind'sbeye, clear as crystal...only this time Ralph couldn't seem to refuse them so quickly as he had before when it was in person.

"Curse those puppy-dog eyes of her," he growled out loud as he tossed his head back in frustration.

But he realized in horror that, even though her eyes were just a ploy to get him to cave and go with her to the Internet...the words Vanellope spoke then were painstakingly true and real.

Going into the Internet _was_ truly the only way to undo all this mess. And to save _Sugar Rush_ , to save the characters in it...to save Vanellope herself...

"But it's too dangerous!" Ralph verbally had to remind himself, stopping at the edge of the NiceLand building. "There's no telling what creatures live inside the Internet or who could hurt us...hurt _her_...And-and there's no guarantee that Epay or whatever is called will even _have_ a gaming replacement steering wheel...We may not have enough _time_ to even find it-!"

 _"...We've got to at least try...It could be our only chance..." _Vanellope's words cut into him again- only that much deeper this time.

Sighed heavy-heartly, Ralph ran a huge hand through his auburn hair. He couldn't do this...could he?

If he stayed glued to Vanellope's side the whole time they were in this Internet place, got the steering wheel as quickly as possible and then got back out again...could _any_ _thing_ really go wrong?

 _But what if something did go wrong? _Ralph countered mentally, rolling his eyes upwards and darting them from side to side in the sky as he allowed a huge hand to rub dwn his face slowly. _What if Vanellope got hurt and we couldn't get back to Felix in time for him to fix her, or-or she gets separated from me or...or..._

But his mentally worrying was cut off as a bright flash of color caught his eye far upon him.

Focusing better on the object, Ralph gasped softly as a streak of pixellated red, yellow, and orange lightened up the sky of _Fix-It Felix Jr._ It shot across the sky before flickering out, being over as fast as it had begun.

Ralph blinked repeatedly, unsure of what his eyes had really seen- but seconds later he knew without a shadow of a doubt what he had just seen.

A rare, NiceLand shooting star.

In all his years of being plugged in, Ralph had only seen one other falling star in his game- and it was on the night, a little over 6 years ago, he decided to go to his first Bad-Anon meeting.

On that night when he saw it, Ralph pushed aside all his adult, manly pride, his pain and rejection and simply wished for a _friend_ , a real friend on that shooting star...

And on that very same night... Ralph had met Vanellope.

Now...all these years later...was another shooting star to wish on, right when Ralph needed it the most- more than he ever had in the past.

The wrecker gulped again, pushing down his pride and pain... and knew what he had to do as he closed his eyes.

He knew it was corny and childish, as it had been the last time he'd done it...and he knew, too, that there was a chance that it wasn't even going to work, even _less_ of a chance than that of the first time he wished on a star, in fact...but Ralph had to _try_. And he knew without any hesitation of exactly what to wish for.

It was all he had at this point.

"I wish..I wish I had the courage to go into the Internet," he whispered out, blushingly slightly in embarrassment in realizing how stupid he sounded and in what he was doing...but when the wrecker slowly opened his eyes...

He realized he felt absolutely no different- Ralph _still_ in his gut knew he couldn't go into the Internet...and still didn't want to go, either.

Screwing up his face in anger, the giant stomped on the NiceLander Apartment building roof in over-whelming strength, shaking the whole building sharply. He couldn't believe he didn't cause a hole in the roof- or that he could ever be so stupid or so weak or... so afraid.

" _Just suck it up,"_ Calhoun mentally screamed at him, her words more cutting than before. _"...stop being afraid for once...!"_

Ralph growled out loud in annoyance at her words, or at how true he wished they could be of him. Suddenly, the wrecker found himself blaming the shooting star, about to scream out a cursing on _all_ the pointless NiceLand celestial bodies when-

An all-too-familiar _c_ _lick!_ of the front door of the arcade was heard in the distance.

In horror, Ralph flipped around to face the game-screen of _Fix-It Felix Jr._ and watched as Mr.Litwak came walking into the arcade...directly in sight of the _Fix-It Felix Jr._ cabinet.

In a mad scramble, Ralph quickly got on his hands and knees and climbed over the side of the building's edge, praying he wasn't seen out of position by the arcade's owner.

Still grabbing the top ledge, the wrecker hung on and tried to figure out why Mr.Litwak would come back to the arcade so late. It was almost already midnight.

 _He never comes to the arcade after-hours,_ Ralph growled. _And of course the one time he does, I'm on the stupid roof in plain view._

Listening carefully, Ralph heard the arcade owner making his way around the room, Litwak mumbling to himself about 'some book' he had left behind.

His curiosity getting the better of him, Ralph peered over the top of the building, then surprised to see the man still dressed in his referee-esque outfit, the only set of clothes he ever seemed to wear.

Ralph watched silently as the old man continued to mumble and look around, pausing occasionally to scratch his balding head in confusion. After a few more moments of searching, though, Mr.Litwak finally seemed to find what he was looking for.

"Ah-ha!" he explained as he picked up a small, paper-bound book resting on top of the _Pac-Man_ cabinet. "I thought I'd grab ya before I left, but I guess I didn't, eh?"

Ralph rolled eyes as the man outside his game talked to the small book- as Litwak often did with game cabinets and the characters in them as well. _Sometimes I wonder if his Nana is saner than he is, _the wrecker had the off-hand thought.

Mr.Litwak mindlessly began thumbing through the booklet of sorts, sounding out words Ralph had never heard before- and clearly neither had Mr.Litwak. Unable to see clearly, the old man held the booklet closer to Ralph's game, allowing the light glow from the game's screen to light up the pages.

As he did, Ralph inched up a little closer to the building's ledge to see the long title of said forgotten book- and wished more than anything else that he never did.

 _"Knows-More Presents: Turbo! The Anti-Virus System that Gets Rid of Viruses Fast!_" the fakey and old paper-back cover screamed cheerily at Ralph where he could see it, making his gut twist that much more- only in utter disgust and repulsion.

There was _no_ _way_ he was going to let anything with the name ' _Turbo_ ' in it's title get downloaded into this arcade.

Unaware of the happenings in the cabinet of one of the man's ole favorite, _Fix-It Felix Jr.,_ Mr.Litwak shut the booklet, still unable to see the small wording it contained and sighed. "I guess I'll have to study all this tonight to be ready for tomorrow in case I need to install it."

Rubbing the back of his neck tiredly, the old man turned and was about to head back out the arcade doors, when he stopped to look over at _Sugar_ Rush.

A growing hole in his stomach getting wider and wider, Ralph watched as the arcade owner gently reached out and rubbed a sad hand over the side of the candy game's cabinet. It was clear the normally bright and happy game being unplugged was unsettling to the old man, too.

"Man, I sure hope you'll be ok when I plug ya back in a few hours, _Sugar Rush,"_ the man spoke to the console, his voice filled with pain as if he was speaking to a close yet dying friend. "'Cause I _really_ don't want to install this program into all the games here."

Ralph watched in silence as his arcade owner sadly patted the game one last time and whispered softly: "Please fix yourself overnight, ok?"

And as Litwak made his way back towards the doors, leaving for the night... Ralph continued to hang over the side of the building, feeling something inside him snapped.

 _Sugar Rush_ needed... _had_ to be fixed...and that replacement steering wheel was the only one thing going to do it.

But surprisingly, it wasn't the aracde's last hope.

Wreck-It Ralph himself was.

 _He_ was _Sugar Rush_ 's, the whole _arcade's_ last chance of fighting against a possible outbreak of viruses and unplugged games...

And he was _not_ about let to let that chance get away.

A weird confidence, a strange calmness, a strong amount of courage overtook the wrecker like never before...because he knew he wasn't going out without a fight for his family, his home, his arcade. For his Vanellope.

And it was a fight he was determined to win, in order to save his family, his home, his arcade, his Vanellope- come whatever threats or dangers.

Wreck-It Ralph had to and was now _going_ into the fascinating, interesting, dangerous...and amazing-sounding world of the Internet with his best friend Vanellope.

And as he realized that startling point of fact, only the words of Sergeant Tamora Calhoun herself could motivate and solidify Ralph's determination that much more.

 _"And go..._ _get.. that...steering_ _wheel!"_


	6. Epilogue

Mr.Litwak sighed once last time as he eyed _Sugar Rush_ , again the source of his frustration and worry. His heart clearly on his shoulder, the old man walked emptily to towards the arcade's front door.

After one last longing look towards the candy game, the old man flipped off the automatic neon "open" sign and after stepping outside, he locked the door and then disappearing into the night and out of sight...

And that was then Wreck-It Ralph raced down the Nicelander's building, his heart filled with hope.

Once his feet reached the ground, he stumbled across the NiceLand grass.

That was taking it lightly, actually. It was really more like the huge giant man _galloped_. _Stampeded_.

Wreck-It Ralph flat-out _barreled_ through Niceland. His large feet flattened the fresh, bright grass, and he ignored the way it tickled his bare feet as he tripped occasionally.

Because Wreck-It Ralph was now on an unstoppable mission...

To get to his best friend and little sister, Vanellope von Schweetz, go into the Internet, come what may, and save her game and the whole arcade again..to be a hero again.

And Ralph would indeed get into the Internet and get that steering wheel- no matter who or what stood in his way.

"Hey, kid!" he yelled out as he ran towards where Vanellope still laid sleeping, his huge feet stomping on the ground and shaking it in rough tremors.

Once he reached Vanellope and seeing she wasn't awake still, Ralph panted slightly as he jumped up and landed with a huge stomp, shaking the ground very violently under his own feet. "WAKE UP!" he screamed loudly, shaking the child that much more.

With the earth-shaking underneath her, Vanellope was less than startled awake, involuntarily glitching violently in the air with a startled yelp. Thankfully landing safely on Ralph's old stomp, the child then gasped for breath before she realized what (or who) it was that had suddenly awakened her.

She glared at Ralph sharply, angry at being woken up unexpectedly...not seeming to notice the excitement on his face as he placed his hands on his hips, a big, goofy grin on his face.

"Ralph, what is _wrong_ with you?!" The girl hissed as she placed a hand over her fast beating, startled heart.

"Start churning butter, and put on your church shoes, little sister," Ralph told her as finger gunned at her excitedly, his face brighter and more excited than it was at any point earlier that same night.

As she stared at him blankly, Ralph suddenly spun in a circle and pointed up into the sky, the stars, and possibly far beyond anything either could see- clearly ready for their next courageous, grand adventure.

"'Cause we're about to BLAST OFF!"


End file.
